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extile and footwear businesspeople have welcomed the government'€™s launch of the so-called '€œinvestment desk'€ on Friday, calling it an effort to reach out to labor-intensive industries at a difficult time that has seen layoffs and shutdowns.

The desk '€” physically present at the Coordinating Investment Board (BKPM) office '€” will receive, identify and verify problems experienced by textile and footwear companies and offer specific solutions, which include site inspections and coordinating with local administrations if required.

'€œThe desk is proof of the government'€™s presence in this difficult situation,'€ Indonesian Textile Association (API) supervisory board chairman Benny Soetrisno said on Friday at the launch event at the BKPM office in South Jakarta.

The launch is to follow up President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s program to create more jobs by boosting investment in labor-intensive sectors to revive economic growth that has slowed to a six-year low. Textile and shoe industries, according to estimates, can absorb some 17,000 workers per Rp 1 trillion of investment, or 6.5 times as many as other industries'€™ average absorption of 2,642 employees.

Earlier this week, Jokowi launched an investment program that will monitor 16 companies in the labor-intensive industry, mostly apparel, footwear and garment businesses, in an effort to increase employment.

Indonesia'€™s economic growth slowed to 4.67 percent in the second quarter of this year, the slowest since 2009, with weak purchasing power weighing on domestic consumption, which makes up more than half of the country'€™s GDP.

A handful number of textile and footwear businesses, mostly small and medium enterprises, have suspended production as stocks piled up, causing tens of thousands of workers to temporarily lose their jobs.

'€œCertainty [...] stronger purchasing power would attract investors to invest in the shoe industry and encourage existing companies to recall their employees,'€ said Eddy Widjanarko, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear Producers Association (Aprisindo).

BKPM head Franky Sibarani, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and Industry Minister Saleh Husin attended the investment desk launching event on Friday as their offices would team up with the Manpower Ministry, Finance Ministry, API and Aprisindo in running the desk.

Franky elaborated that services offered by the investment desk would include, among other things, loan and tax payment restructuring.

'€œFor example, a company can pay its taxes at a later time after undergoing an audit by the team and receiving approval,'€ he said.

He went on to say that companies could ask to pay their electricity bills in installment should they face liquidity problems.

The businesspeople also pointed to domestic cotton production and competition with Vietnam as issues the government needed to address. They expressed concern that the lack of local cotton supply caused textile companies to fully rely on imports, which were prone to volatile prices.

Meanwhile, Vietnam'€™s recent move to join the US-led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) also brought concern to the industries as the neighboring country would be more lucrative, given the facilities and incentives that come with being a member of the pact.

The textile and footwear industry recorded Rp 16.8 trillion worth of exports last year, accounting for 14.3 percent of the country'€™s total non-oil and gas exports. (prm)