Director of Asia Pacific Rayon
Factory fashions: Workers operate sewing machines at a garment factory in Bogor, West Java, in September 2018. The government wants Indonesia to be a top-five world textile producer by 2030, but several businesses in the industry have had to close amid tight competition. (Antara/Yulius Satria Wijaya)With Idul Fitri in May 2020 on the horizon, businesses in the Indonesian textile and textile products (TPT) industry should be anticipating a busy start to the year to meet the expected growth in demand ahead of the biggest annual Muslim festive period. But the prolonged and complex pressures faced by the labor and capital intensive TPT industry may result in a different story this year. The industry — centered mostly in the densely populated provinces of West and East Java — has seen an increasing number of business closures. Expected growth in unemployment is one serious short-term impa...