VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The government's move to tighten import flows is aimed at protecting and supporting domestic products, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan has said.

"Nowadays, we cannot be underestimated. We have been involved in big events such as G7 and G20; we are also increasing our cooperation in the economic sector," he added on Monday.

Besides increasing international cooperation, the government has also continued to protect and maintain local products by tightening imports, he noted.

"Previously, goods from foreign countries could freely enter our ports with cross-border imports. This practice threatened our domestic products because they were less competitive. Now, we have decided to close the cross-border for imported goods worth less than Rp1.5 million on e-commerce to save our local products," Hasan informed.

Apart from closing direct imports, the government is also tightening import controls by changing post borders to borders, he added.

"Yesterday, I also tightened fruit imports to boost our domestic fruits. All imports must be regulated and supervised, instead of making exports more difficult. We want to protect our farmers and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)," the minister said.

According to him, the import tightening could boost the development of domestic products and increase people's purchasing power for local goods.

The support to protect and maintain domestic products by the government through tightening imports has also been felt by one of the MSME owners in Lampung, Trianti.

"With efforts to ensure local products' supremacy in their own country, especially MSME products, we support the import restriction," she said.

She noted that domestic products are no less competitive than imported products.

"The competitiveness of local products is no less than imported products. However, the quality and packaging must be improved to attract consumers. By providing opportunities for local products to be known by a wider market, it has helped the growth of local MSMEs to increase their business capability and capacity," she added. (Antaranews)