President Jokowi Inspects Plant Nursery in Riau

President Jokowi inspects a plant nursery owned by PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper, Pelalawan Regency, Riau Province, Friday (21/2). (Photo by: PR/Ibrahim)

As a part of his working visit to Pelalawan Regency of Riau Province, on Friday (21/2), President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inspected a plant nursery with a capacity of up to 300 million seedlings, owned by PT. Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP).

“I think these kinds of strength should be promoted to reduce (import) as an import substitution, to reduce our trade balance deficit, so that we expect our current account balance to improve,” President Jokowi said.

According to the President, self-sufficiency from upstream to downstream would reduce import frequency. “I think with the capacity of 300 million, this has great potential for future rayon industry, so we should avoid rayon import, viscose import as we can produce them ourselves,” he stated.

Indonesia’s fiber industry, the President went on to say, has a capacity of 240 thousand tons and will expand to 600 thousand tons. ” We hope that in the future, some of the domestic industry will enliven the garment industry. I think this strength will result in strong competitiveness,” he said. (RSF/EN)

Translated by: Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Reviewed by: Yuyu Mulyani