June 10, 2021
Elsa
Catriana - Kompas.com - 10/06/2021, 12:35 WIB
JAKARTA,
KOMPAS.com - The Ministry of Industry continues to spur the competitiveness of
the Kendal Industrial Park (KIK), Central Java, to be more integrated so that
it can be attractive for the investors.
Minister
of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said this step need to be carried out
through coordination and cooperation with relevant stakeholders, such as across
ministries and institutions as well as local governments.
"KIK
is one of the integrated clusters that can be an example for the development of
other industrial estates in Indonesia," Agus said in a press release,
quoted by Kompas.com, Thursday (10/6/2021).
Agus
explained that KIK is a tangible manifestation of the cooperation between
Indonesia and Singapore, which was built by PT Jababeka Tbk with Sembcorp
Development Indonesia Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Sembawang Development Ltd.
from Singapore.
The
operation of KIK was officially inaugurated by President Joko Widodo and Prime
Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong in November 2016.
According
to the Minister of Industry, the development of KIK will continue to be
accelerated into an export-oriented labor-intensive industrial area.
It is
believed that it can accelerate the efforts to recover the national economy due
to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We
appreciate that KIK currently has 66 Business Entities with an investment
achievement of Rp 19.2 trillion. This investment certainly provides a broad
multiplier effect for the economy, including foreign exchange earnings and
labor absorption," said Agus.
Meanwhile,
the Director General of Resilience, Territorial and International Industrial
Access (KPAII) of the Ministry of Industry, Eko SA Cahyanto, said that his
party had just made a working visit to KIK.
"We
as the industrial estate builder support the continuation of KIK development so
that more investors can enter," he explained.
The
Ministry of Industry's proposal in order to accelerate the development of KIK
to be more competitive are encouraging port development, facilitating
competitive gas prices, and speed up the revision of Presidential Regulation
Number 78 of 2017 concerning Spatial Planning for
Kendal-Demak-Ungaran-Salatiga-Semarang-Purwodadi Urban Areas.
"Gas
prices and the Perpres revision are the two priorities that we propose to
increase investment in Kendal, especially in KIK," said Eko.
According
to Eko, during a visit to PT Daeyoung, the company spent USD 13.8 per MMBTU for
LPG or more expensive than the manpower cost.
“They
use gas as an energy source in the dyeing process. Gas supply from East
Java," he said.
Eko
added that the company's production capacity has only reached 60 percent of its
total capacity. “If the gas price is cheaper, it will certainly increase its
capacity. Most of their products are for domestic use, and the rest is exported
to Vietnam," he added.