Indonesia to develop three reliable industries in 2025

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said that in order to become an advanced industrial country, Indonesia would give priority to developing three sectors into reliable industries in 2025, namely agro-industry, telematics and transportation equipment industry.

"Agro-industry is given the main priority. The ones are currently developed intensively are oil palm, cacao and rubber," the minister said at state enterprise forum here on Friday.

He said that in focusing its industrial development, Indonesia selected sectors of industries which could be developed and had potential competitive edge in the future.

These types of industries, once developed, would help boost the development of other industries, he said.

According to the minister besides the three industrial sectors which would get priorities, there were two others on which Indonesia would give development focus, namely manufacturing and selected small and medium-scale industries.

The strategy to be applied in the development of agro-industry, the minister said, is to strengthen the chain of values of this industry such as building its structure, diversifying its products, increasing its added values, quality and expanding its market.

"We are able to produce 550 thousand tons of cocoa a year but 80 percent of our exports are cacao seeds. This is unlike Malaysia which produces only 50 thousand tons of cocoa but is able to export 250 tons of cocoa. This means we are weak in down stream industries", the minister said.

Therefore, he said, Indonesia needed to carry out main strategies for increasing its competitive edge, namely added values, efficiency and structure improvement. Besides, the industries that were developed should be sustainable and should be those of small and medium scale ones.

The minister also cited cluster industry development as an operational strategy, namely by expanding industries into regions and developing business environment.

Thus, the target to become an advanced industrial state in 2005 would be achieved, he said.