INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - The national metal industry is able to grow to 7.50 percent in the second quarter of 2017 or the highest compared to other manufacturing sectors. However, the mother of industry needs to increase competitiveness amid the flood of imported metal products in domestic market with cheaper selling price.

"The growth momentum of this metal industry sector must be maintained, even further enhanced by creating a conducive business climate for investors," said Director General of Metal, Machinery, Transportation and Electronic Equipment (IGM) (8/23/2017).

He added, in addition, the need for protection policy of domestic industry to imported products. "One of the steps that has been implemented by the government is through the Program of Increasing Domestic Product Use (P3DN) .This strategic effort provides support to trigger the use of local metal products, especially on projects financed by the state budget," he said.

Furthermore, Putu explained that P3DN program is expected to encourage people and business entities to better use domestic products, to empower domestic industries through securing domestic market, reducing the dependence of imported products, and increasing the added value in the country.

"One of the concrete forms is to require government agencies to maximize the use of domestic products in the procurement activities of goods and services financed by the state budget or APBD," he added.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry continues to promote the implementation of Indonesian National Standard (SNI). "The implementation of SNI can be done voluntarily and mandatory, until now, most metal industry products are voluntary SNI and about 27 SNIs are required," said Putu.

In fact, the Ministry of Industry is focusing on spurring the development program of the local resource-based metal industry because the prospects for the future are still pretty good in terms of the huge demand. "Then this opportunity should be responded by increasing supply through the optimization of new utilization and investment," he said.

According to Putu, the potential of abundant domestic raw materials should be optimally utilized to improve the competitiveness of domestic products.

This has been done by several national metal industries by expanding the business. "For example the expansion undertaken by the steel industry to meet the needs of infrastructure projects and automotive sector," concluded