President Joko Widodo has urged Indonesians to avoid foreign products and love local products instead.
The president hopes that the public can become loyal consumers of domestic products, increasing sales for local producers in the future.
Furthermore, the head of state also ordered the Trade Ministry to produce policies and strategies for marketing local products, namely by placing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in strategic places.
“Shopping centres must be pushed from Jakarta to the regions to make Indonesian products, especially MSMEs. Do not let strategic locations be filled with foreign brands,” said Jokowi.
He asked the Trade Ministry to arrange for locations where overseas brand are sold to be moved to places that are not strategic, leaving the best shopping spots available for local brands.
“Branding must stick in order to love Indonesian products more than foreign products. The 270 million people of Indonesia should be loyal consumers of our own products,” said Jokowi.
He added that MSMEs must also be assisted to increase their sales abroad because MSMEs often have difficulty with producing at capacity due to lack of capital.
“Banks should be encouraged to inject funds for MSMEs so that capacity can increase,” said Jokowi.
Local products such as handicrafts, food and beverages, automobiles, beauty items, etc. should have higher standards or at least meet the same standards as foreign products that dominate the markets, he added.
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