The association previously held its annual Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) in August. By holding GIIAS earlier, the association aims to sooner stimulate second semester sales and thus meet its year-end sales target.

This year, Gaikindo aims to sell 1.1 million vehicles domestically, which is the same target as last year, indicating stagnant growth for 2019.

At least 45 auto brands will showcase products during the 10-day auto show, slated to begin on July 18 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) center in Tangerang, Banten. Products includes passenger cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles.

“Next year, when the political situation returns to normal, GIIAS will be back in August,” said Yohannes at a recent press briefing about the auto show.

Domestic car sales fell 13 percent to 253,863 cars in the first quarter of this year partly due to the presidential and legislative elections which were held in April 17. Many businessmen have delayed their expansion over fears of political chaos ahead of the elections.

“We actually foresaw [since last year] the drop in sales early this year,” said Gaikindo chairman Yohannes Nangoi, “It would be due to, among other reasons, political activities ahead of the legislative and presidential elections.”

The elections were the world’s largest single-day elections, involving 192 million voters.

Even though the elections have ended, political uncertainties remain, as presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto threatens mass mobilization this month to challenge the election result. His supporters plan to take to the streets to challenge the election results, despite a warning from security officials that the rally could become the target of a terrorist attack

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has almost finished tabulating votes nationally. Jokowi so far leads the polls with 55 percent of the vote. However, Prabowo’s campaign team is claiming irregularities even in the vote counting.

Such political activities, continued Yohannes, deterred many citizens from purchasing cars in the first semester, which normally contributes 40 to 43 percent of yearly sales. Most people preferred to wait and see for the post-election economic condition.

Rizwan Alamsjah, chairman of the show’s organizing committee, said the event was also rebranded from GIIAS to GIIAS the Series. Its new name was changed following the holding of smaller shows in Surabaya, Makassar and Medan. The association has long held shows in these cities but now pays more attention to them as car sale growth outside of Java outpaces that inside Java.

Yohannes added that Java used to contribute 80 to 85 percent of annual domestic sales until 2016 when it began contracting to the current 60 percent. The contraction “is in line with government efforts to even-out development outside of Java”.

The association declined to mention the show’s participation and sales target — the second consecutive year it declined to do so — but did say GIIAS was expected to boost sales just enough to meet its year-end target.

High interest rates on auto loans and low purchasing power are two other reasons for the expected stagnation this year. Bank Indonesia increased its benchmark rate by 175 basis points over the course of last year to 6 percent, which reduced many consumers’ ability to buy vehicles.

Suparno Djasmin, director of Astra Financial, the exhibition’s main sponsor and an auto loan heavyweight, told reporters at an event in March that his company targeted a marginal 5 to 10 percent increase in loan disbursements for this year’s show.

The target means disbursements are expected to increase from Rp 1.1 trillion (US$75.8 million) at last year’s show to between Rp 1.2 trillion and Rp 1.25 trillion at this year’s. Such a marginal increase was “in line with the expected growth of the auto industry”.

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