GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTIN ENCOURAGING

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Aug 2 (ANTARA)  - Although industries at home still depend on imported raw materials, yet  their products are showing encouraging growth as reflected in their domination of the country's non oil / non gas commodity exports.          Besides, production of medium and large scale industries also showed an increase of 4.79 percent while that of small and medium manufacturing industries also increased by 1.4 percent.          Thus, dependence on raw materials could be compensated with increased exports. "The increase in the exports of industrial products by 36.74 percent in the January - June 2011 period is likely due to the increase in the raw materials / auxiliary goods imports in the previous periods," Central Board of Statistics (BPS) Head Rusman Heriawan said on Monday.          In the first semester of 2011, industrial product exports accounted for 27.5 percent of the total non oil /no gas product exports which during that period showed an increase of 33.2 percent.          According to Rusman the increase in the industrial exports could have been boosted by the importation of raw materials or auxiliary goods for industry at home. It seems that Indonesia's dependence on imported raw materials is still high.          Rusman Heriawan said that in the first semester of this year imports of raw materials / auxiliary goods were recorded at 62.88 bullion US dollars, accounting for 75.23 percent of the country's whole import values in the same period.          He said that if compared with the imports of the same commodities in the corresponding period a year earlier which were recorded at 73.45 percent of the whole imports, the percentage of imported raw materials / auxiliary goods this year were higher.       Yet, there is an indication that the increase in the importation of raw materials / supporting goods had links with the increase in the country's exports of industrial products in the following period.          Vice Minister for trade affairs Mahendra Siregar said in the January - June 2011 period the industrial sector products dominated the non oil / non gas exports. He said that industrial products contributed 27.5 percent to the non oil / non gas exports which in the same period increased by 33.2 percent.          He said that the contribution of the industrial sector was far higher than those of two other sectors, namely mining and agriculture. The two sectors contributed 5.1 percent and 0.7 percent respectively.           During the first semester of 2001, the exports of industrial products increased 36.7 percent from US$44.4 billion to US$60.7 billion. The increase was supported by increase in the exports of manufacturing industrial products such as textile and textile products.          Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said the domination of industrial products in the non oil / non gas exports in the first half of the year indicated that the development of down stream industry in the country was already on the right track.          According to the BPS,  small and medium manufacturing industrial products in the second quarter of this year increased by 1.48 percent from that in the previous month.          "But we cannot compare it with that in the same period a year earlier because our survey only began in the fourth quarter in 2010,"  BPS chief Rusman Heriawan.          Based on the BPS data, the highest production growth in the small and medium manufacturing industries in the second quarter was experienced by such sectors as papers and paper-based products (11.35 percent),  motor vehicle industry, trailer and semi-trailer (10.12 percent and chemicals or chemical-based products (9.92 percent).          Rusman said that furniture, non-metal quarrying goods and food sectors contributed a lot to the growth of small and medium manufacturing industries . their respective contribution was recorded at 12.51 percent, 12.39 percent and 12.32 percent.          Yet, the BPS also recorded a production decline in a number of small and medium manufacturing industries such as timber, wood-based industry, rattan-based and bamboo-based industries; repair services, tool and machinery assembling; and non-metal quarrying industry. The three sectors respectively declined by 5.83 percent, 4.10 percent and 2.88 percent.          Besides, small and medium manufacturing industries, the statistics agency also recorded production increases in the large and medium scale industries, which experienced a 4.79 percent growth in the second quarter of 2011.          "In the past three years the growth of large and medium scale industries had always increased in the second quarters," Rusman Heriawan said.          He said that large scale manufacturing industries in the second quarter of 2010 rose by 4.3 percent from the second quarter of 2009 while in 2009 it rose by 064 percent from that in the previous year.         The BPS data indicated that increase in production took place in May and June. Large and medium scale manufacturing industrial products in May increased 2.23 percent from the previous month and in June it rose by 1.62 percent from a month earlier.          The highest increase happened with the electricity machinery industry, basic metal, chemical and chemical-based goods as well as leather and leather-based goods.          The production of industrial products such as rubber, rubber-based goods, plastics and plastic-based products, wood and wood-based commodities, experienced a decline.***5*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/H-YH) 02-08-2011 21:59:3