Indonesia’s Footwear Industry Poised to Boost National Economy
Surabaya, The Gulf Observer: Indonesia’s footwear industry has the potential to elevate the nation’s economy to a global level, according to Riefky Yuswandi, Secretary of the Directorate General of Small and Medium Industries at the Ministry of Industry.
Speaking at the Indonesia Footwear Creative Competition (IFCC) in Surabaya on Sunday, Yuswandi highlighted the sector’s robust performance. “As of the second quarter of 2024, the national footwear industry’s growth reached 3.92 percent compared to the same period last year,” he said, emphasizing the industry’s steady rise.
Yuswandi referred to data from the 2023 World Footwear Yearbook, which ranked Indonesia among the top five global footwear producers, with 807 million pairs manufactured in 2023. He noted that of this total, approximately 445 million pairs, or around 55 percent, were exported, underscoring Indonesia’s significant production capacity.
He further projected that the country’s footwear exports in 2024 could surpass the US$6.4 billion achieved in 2023, with the first half of 2024 already seeing exports reach a value of US$3.7 billion. “We anticipate an even larger figure in the second half of this year,” Yuswandi added.
While the export market shows promising potential, Yuswandi acknowledged that the domestic market remains underutilized. Only 362 million pairs were sold domestically, a relatively modest figure considering Indonesia’s population of 282 million, with each individual buying, on average, just one or two pairs annually.
To address this, Yuswandi stressed the need for greater innovation to stimulate domestic demand. “There is untapped potential in our local market, and we must encourage more creativity to capture it,” he remarked.
Yuswandi also highlighted the Ministry of Industry’s machinery restructuring program, aimed at supporting local creative industries, including footwear manufacturing. Under this initiative, entrepreneurs are eligible for a 25 percent reimbursement on imported machinery costs and a 40 percent reimbursement on locally made machinery, which is intended to drive technological advancement and improve production efficiency in the sector.
With these initiatives, Indonesia’s footwear industry is poised to further strengthen its position in the global market while unlocking domestic growth potential.