Indonesia'S Textile And Apparel Market Share Increased In ASEAN

A textile manufacturer said Indonesia's textile and textile products' share in the ASEAN region has increased by about 10% in the past two years.

AdeSudrajatUsman, President of the Indonesian textile manufacturers association (API), said on Thursday: "Indonesia's textile and clothing performance has also improved significantly.

Exports increased from 300 million US dollars to US $1 billion 300 million.

He said that the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, including the reduction or cancellation of import tax, is the main factor to promote the export of Indonesian textile and clothing to ASEAN.

"The free trade agreement gives us a bigger opportunity to develop potential markets in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, which have a higher purchasing power," he said.

Therefore, he expressed the hope that the textile trade in the region would continue to grow, especially after the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community in Southeast Asian countries in 2015.

"We also want to expand our trade with ASEAN partners, such as Japan and South Korea," he said.

He said that so far, Indonesia's largest textile market is still the United States, accounting for 37%, followed by the European Union (14%), ASEAN (10%) and Japan (7%).

According to the Ministry of trade data, Indonesian textile exports reached US $9 billion 160 million in -8 months in January 2011, up 23.4% from 7 billion 420 million US dollars in the same period last year.