REGULATION of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Number 8 of 2024 concerning the Third Amendment to Permendag Number 36 of 2023 concerning Import Policy and Regulation is considered to have caused concerns in the retail sector of global brands that have officially entered Indonesia. Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Retailers and Shopping Center Tenants (Hippindo) Budihardjo Iduansjah stated this.
“This causes empty goods in stores, hinders the opening of stores, and the worst effect is the termination of workers. On the other hand, the difficulty of official imports will result in Indonesia being flooded with illegal imported products from wholesale, smuggling which will cause domestic trade to slump. Local factories, local products, and MSMEs are threatened to slump,” said Budihardjo when met in Jakarta on Friday (5/7).
He emphasized that the root of the problem of these various things is illegal imports and bulk imports that must be dealt with firmly and eradicated. “The government also needs to provide support to global brands that are not competitors of local brands and MSMEs, because the presence of global brands can attract shopping tourism traffic to Indonesia and prevent people from shopping abroad, thereby securing the country’s foreign exchange. For that, we initiated the Belanja di Indonesia Aja program so that people buy global, local, and MSME brands in Indonesia,” he said.
As is known, the retail sector as the locomotive of the economic ecosystem from upstream to downstream that connects various elements such as producers, factories, distributors, suppliers, MSMEs, shopping centers, and marketplaces, is the backbone of the national economy with a contribution of around 52% to economic growth.
If this sector is disrupted, he continued, the impact will be very broad considering the crucial role of the retail sector in the consumption and purchase of domestically produced goods. Therefore, appropriate support and regulation from the government are very important to ensure sustainable economic growth amid economic uncertainty.
“On the other hand, government support for local products and MSMEs needs to be increased through coaching, mentoring, capital, promotion for local brands and MSMEs so that they have competitiveness, move up a class and go global,” said Budihardjo.
Also read: Being the Sector Worst Hit by Illegal Imports, Retail Association Supports Permendag 36/2023
In line with Budihardjo, the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Global Brand Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Apregindo), Handaka Santosa, said that based on data held by the retail association, following the enactment of Permendag Number 8 of 2024, members of the association consisting of business actors and official brand holders were forced to significantly reduce imports which were then sold in limited quantities in official stores. “Meanwhile, the rampant illegal import products flooding the Indonesian market clearly shows that this policy has failed to address the real root of the problem,” he said.
Handaka added that global brands targeting the upper middle class have stores in malls and absorb a lot of local workers, and are not competitors of domestic products, especially MSMEs.
“This global brand must be supported so that it can compete in terms of price with similar brands in Asian countries, especially ASEAN. Thus, Indonesian people will prefer to shop domestically, while supporting tourism by attracting foreign tourists to shop in Indonesia,” he concluded. (Z-2)
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