VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Industry is proposing to provide incentives for domestic milk processing industry to be more competitive. The fiscal facility is a form of appreciation to business actors who have established partnerships with local dairy farmers and absorb a lot of fresh milk in the country. It was said by Director of Beverages, Tobacco, Refreshing material, Directorate General of Agro Industry, the Ministry of Industry, Abdul Rochim, in Jakarta recently. Abdul Rochim added, by fulfilling the requirements of the partnership, the industry can apply for incentives.The providing incentives in the form of raw materials import duty is given as one of the efforts of the Ministry of Industry to encourage the development of national milk processing industry. In addition, it is expected that a number of dairy farmers will increase while milk consumption also increase to keep people healthy.Through the policy, Rochim is optimistic that domestic fresh milk products will continue to increase as the industry needs to get cheaper import duty incentives for raw materials. He also said the threshold for submission of incentives will continue to be raised, in an effort to encourage the industry to absorb more domestic fresh milk.The providing incentives is also one of the points discussed in the draft Regulation of the Minister of Industry concerning the Development of the National Milk Industry that is being prepared by the Ministry.Previously, Minister of Industry, Airlangga Hartarto said that his ministry focused on boosting milk processing industry in the country. The goal is to meet the needs of consumers both in the domestic market and for export. Therefore, the development of milk processing industry needs to be done through partnership program with dairy farmers in an integrated manner.The partnership program is expected to bring multiple effects, namely spurring regional economic growth, increasing local revenue and employment, so as to prosper the community.Minister Airlangga Hartarto believes that the milk processing industry also contributes significantly to the growth of food and beverage industry. This is indicated by the growth rate of the food and beverage industry in 2017 which reached 9.23 percent, far above the national economic growth of 5.07 percent. In addition, the role of the food and beverage industry subsector to the economy amounted to 6.14 percent and to the gross domestic product of non-oil and gas industries reached 34.3 percent, making it the largest subsector with the largest contribution compared to other subsector industries in the same period.