Indonesia hopes to triple textile and textile product exports in the next five years.
If this happens, this sector will be Indonesia’s largest non-oil export contributor and create jobs for six million people.

Indonesia’s exports in 2017 went up six per cent compared to exports in 2016. Apparel exports rose from 7.21 billion dollars in 2016 to 7.93 billion dollars last year, while textile exports stagnated at 4.66 billion dollars.

In 2016, apparel exports from this southeast Asian nation decreased 3.2 per cent due to several challenges including high logistics costs and gas and power tariffs being higher than other competitor countries.

At present, the US is the largest clothing importer from Indonesia. If the country were to lobby with the US to expand its Generalised System of Preferences to include more Indonesian apparel and accessories, this would facilitate the entry of more Indonesian products into the US at lower tariffs.

A small 0.62 per cent year on year growth was detected in Indonesia’s textile exports in the first half of 2017. This modest growth was supported by a 20.4 per cent year on year rise in knitwear exports.

Indonesia is one of the world’s largest textile manufacturers and exporters (although trailing far behind China).