Jakarta (VNA) – Calls are mounting for the Indonesian government to cancel plans to import 105,000 pickup trucks for rural cooperatives, amid concerns the move could undermine the domestic automotive industry, which executives say is capable of supplying the vehicles locally, as reported by the Jakarta Globe.
Saleh Husin, Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said the group has asked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to scrap the proposal following consultations with automotive manufacturers and industry associations.
He warned that importing fully built-up (CBU) vehicles risks eroding the competitiveness of local manufacturers while delivering limited economic benefit at home. Domestic automakers, he said, have already expressed readiness to supply vehicles for the government’s rural cooperative initiative under Prabowo’s flagship Koperasi Merah Putih programme.
The proposed imports, valued at an estimated 25 trillion IDR (1.5 billion USD), were first disclosed by Joao Angle De Sousa Mota, President Director of state-owned Agrinas Pangan Nusantara.
Saleh stressed that the import policy should align with the government’s industrialisation agenda, which prioritises job creation and higher domestic value-added. Indonesia’s auto sector, he added, has the capacity to produce hundreds of thousands of pickup trucks annually, though factory utilisation remains below potential. Local content in domestically assembled pickups already exceeds 40%, supported by a nationwide after-sales service network.
Meanwhile, Putu Juli Ardika, Chairman of the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo), said at least six automakers operating assembly plants in the country could meet the new pickup demand if given sufficient lead time./.
Indonesia, US sign agreements worth 38.4 billion USD
The Indonesian government said that the agricultural portion of these pledges was worth 2.5 billion USD. The industrial sector MoUs reached 35.9 billion USD in value, including the cooperation on semiconductors and strategic industrial materials.
