Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Industry Ministry will support efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the industrial sector through product quality improvement to meet market requirements, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita has said.

In addition, the industry needs to innovate or optimize technology so that it can run effectively and efficiently, he added.

Kartasasmita said that his ministry has initiated the standardization and optimization of industrial technology in order to create an independent, sovereign, advanced, just, and inclusive industrial sector.

"Strategic steps that have been taken include increasing the number of Indonesian National Standards (SNI), simplifying procedures for getting SNI, and strengthening conformity assessment institutions," the minister said in Jakarta on Wednesday, according to a written statement released by the ministry.

Meanwhile, head of the Industrial Services Standardization and Policy Agency (BSKJI) of the Industry Ministry, Doddy Rahadi, said that in the manufacturing industry, producers who make products according to standard requirements will also benefit from increased customer perception of product quality.

"That is, the standard also serves as a market signal to provide quality assurance for consumers," he said.

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Given the importance of increasing industrial competitiveness for expanding market share, the presence of a conformity assessment agency and all its supporting factors, including calibration, will play an important role in this regard, especially through the standardization program, he added.

Therefore, BSKJI conducted a second series of Grand Technical Guidance in 2021 on Tuesday, (September 21, 2021), he informed. It focused on the 'Role of Conformity Assessment in Industrial Standardization to Promote National Industrial Competitiveness', he added.

"The benefit of this technical guidance is to prepare industrial human resource capabilities in terms of calibration of product testing tools and machines that will be used for product testing, both in industrial companies and conformity assessment institutions in order to push for better quality assurance of national industrial products," Rahadi said.

He stressed that the technical guidance was in line with the Industry Ministry's efforts to improve the competence of industrial human resources. It was also in line with the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap, he added.

“Through this technical guidance, participants are expected to understand the calibration method for quality assurance of industrial products. After that, they can apply their knowledge, especially related to guaranteeing the correctness of measurements which includes measurement standards, measurement process competencies, uncertainty estimation, and process traceability to improve the quality of national industrial products," Rahadi said.
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From the start of the pandemic in 2020 till August 2021, BSKJI has provided direct assistance for the development of industrial human resources by organizing various activities involving more than 46 thousand participants from various industrial sectors, he disclosed. The 2nd series of technical guidance was attended by two thousand participants, he added.

"With the implementation of sustainable assistance, it is expected that in the future, the industry would be able to increase the knowledge and expertise of industrial human resources so as to improve product quality and increase the competitiveness of the national industry," he added.

Rahadi said he is optimistic that through these strategic efforts, the industrial sector would contribute to accelerating the national economic recovery. "So far, the industrial sector is the driving force behind economic growth in Indonesia," he remarked.

Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the performance of the non-oil and gas processing industry grew by 6.91 percent in the second quarter of 2021, in line with national economic growth of 7.07 percent, he noted.

"By mastering calibration as a step to increase competitiveness, the Industry Ministry expects a wider market share for domestic products, so that the strategy pursued can be optimally successful," he added.

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Translator: Risbiani F, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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