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Boost exports or lose jobs
Meet the press: Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel (center) speaks at a meeting at The Jakarta Postâs offices in Jakarta on Monday, flanked by his special advisers Johnny Darmawan (left) and Benny Soetrisno
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span class="inline inline-center">Meet the press: Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel (center) speaks at a meeting at The Jakarta Post's offices in Jakarta on Monday, flanked by his special advisers Johnny Darmawan (left) and Benny Soetrisno. The minister and his entourage paid a visit to the Post on Monday. JP/DON
Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel has challenged Indonesian trade attachés and representatives worldwide to work hard and help boost the country's exports, otherwise they could lose their jobs.
The minister said he would dismiss representatives who failed to meet export targets and would offer the vacant posts to more capable individuals.
The strict measure will be part of the efforts to maximize the role of trade attachés and representatives at the Indonesia Trade Promotion Centers (ITPC) worldwide as 'marketing frontmen' in a bid to attain US$192 billion next year amid sluggish overseas demand.
Rachmat said he would invite all trade attachés and representatives for a meeting in January where they would be given export targets based on market demand in their respective countries of work.
'If they cannot meet the target, I will withdraw them and I will offer their positions to others who are more capable,' he said on Monday during a visit to The Jakarta Post's office.
Rachmat further said that the trade officials would be expected to carry out marketing intelligence, assessing specific interests of buyers within their regions of responsibility.
This new mechanism is one of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's campaign pledges to make Indonesian ambassadors and embassies around the world as 'marketers' of local products overseas.
The trade minister has planned to triple Indonesia's exports from $184.3 billion estimated this year within his five-year term, a very ambitious goal given the continuing uncertainties in the global economy with its major trading partners, such as China, Japan and European countries, struggling with slowdowns.
The previous administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had revised its export target, considering that overseas shipments would only expand by 0.9 percent to $183.3 billion, rather than by 4.1 percent to $190 billion as was expected earlier.
From January to October exports declined by 1.1 percent to $148.06 billion, while imports decreased by 4.1 percent to $149.7 billion, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
Commodities like palm oil, coal and rubber are key contributors to Indonesia's overall exports, making them highly vulnerable to any price fluctuation in the global market.
Weakening exports in contrast to sizeable imports have put intense pressure on Indonesia's trade balance, resulting in a deficit of $1.65 billion up to October.
That has strained the nation's broader measure on trade ' the current account ' and shaken investors' confidence on the outlook of Southeast Asia's biggest economy as illustrated by selling pressures in recent months.
To get the trade balance and current account back on track, the Trade Ministry will develop strategies for managing imports and identifying products that could be exported.
'We are thinking about how to manage importation. If we cannot increase exports, we need to lower imports,' Rachmat said.
The Trade Ministry's head of trade policy research and development, Tjahya Widayanti, said priority would be given to commodities and goods that Indonesia could produce and that had significant demand overseas.
'Included in this category will be electronics, textiles, chemical products, wood, paper, furniture and metal,' she said, adding that primary commodities would cover processed food, animal products, palm oil, fisheries products and vegetables.
Aside from promoting exports, the ministry would also require the use of letters of credit (L/C) in exports to better manage export earnings and control foreign exchange reserves, Rachmat said.
'The policy is ready and we are still awaiting confirmation from the Finance Ministry and Bank Indonesia,' he said.
The government has estimated that a huge amount of export proceeds have been stored in offshore banks, such as in Singapore and Hong Kong.
