Kadin Indonesia Calls for Targeted Import Curbs to Protect Local Industry

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Indonesia's national industry needs greater room to grow in the domestic market. The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) is pushing for selective import restrictions on products that can already be produced locally.

Kadin deputy chair for industry, Saleh Husin, said import controls should go hand in hand with efforts to remove investment barriers to enable domestic production capacity to continue expanding and meet market demand.

According to Saleh, the influx of imported products, particularly goods that can already be manufactured domestically, poses a challenge to efforts to strengthen national industrial resilience.

"Protection of domestic industry needs to be strengthened, but it must be measured, selective and data-driven. The focus of protection should be on products that domestic industries are already capable of producing and supplying, both in terms of quality and quantity," Saleh said in a statement received in Jakarta on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, as quoted by Antara.

He said competition between local and imported products in the same market should receive greater government attention. Domestic industries need sufficient room to grow when competing with foreign products.

However, Saleh stressed that import needs cannot be treated uniformly. Several manufacturing sectors still depend on imported raw materials and capital goods because domestic producers are not yet able to meet all demand.

"Therefore, import regulations need to be continuously evaluated and, when necessary, selectively strengthened, especially to prevent unfair competition without hindering imports of raw materials, capital goods and products that cannot yet be supplied domestically," he said.

Saleh added that import controls should be part of a broader agenda to strengthen national production capacity. Restricting imports alone, he said, would not be sufficient without efforts to increase industrial capacity and provide greater certainty for businesses.

Addressing investment barriers is inseparable from protecting domestic industry, he said. Easier licensing procedures, business certainty and support for production capacity expansion are needed to encourage greater investment in Indonesia.

Saleh said the government has several policy instruments to strengthen the resilience of national industry. These measures should be applied according to each sector's characteristics and conditions, rather than focusing solely on import restrictions.

"These instruments can include import controls, increasing the Domestic Component Level (TKDN), safeguards or incentives, but their implementation must be adjusted to the characteristics of each product," said Saleh. ***