Indonesia allocates funds to improve old machinery

Nearly two million machines have been upgraded since 2007.

Indonesia’s Industry Ministry has announced plans to distribute Rp100 billion (US$7.6 million) from its 2015 budget to finance a programme which will revitalise old machinery used in the footwear, leatherworking and textile industries. This revitalisation programme is one of the ministry’s top incentive strategies for achieving the industry-wide growth target of 300 per cent by 2019, according to industry minister Saleh Husin.

“This programme has lasted seven years and it’s proven very effective in increasing productivity. That’s why we decided to continue it,” said Mr Husin.

He added that the proposed sum would be utilised to the fullest extent, despite being lower than last year’s Rp106.5 billion ($8.1 billion) in allocated funds.

The Ministry claims that the programme has upgraded nearly 2 million machines since it started in 2007, and another 3.7 million pieces of equipment more than 20 years old are currently awaiting rejuvenation. Six categories of machine are eligible for upgrade work, including those used in footwear manufacturing and the mass production of garments, as well as textile looms and knitting machines.

“After collecting company proposals, we’ll have a technical meeting to determine which requests are accepted, before the funds are disbursed through the State Treasury Agency,” said Ramon Bagun, the Ministry’s director for textiles and miscellaneous industries.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 8 of the May 2015 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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