The implementation of the Simultaneous Regional Elections in 2024 is predicted not to have a significant impact on the growth of the domestic textile industry. The General Chairperson of the Indonesian Filament Yarn Producers Association (APSyFi), Redma Gita Wirawasta, expressed his pessimism regarding the contribution of the Regional Elections to increasing demand for textiles. This is closely related to the experience of the 2024 Election, where the consumption of campaign attributes such as party t-shirts and legislative candidate attributes experienced a drastic decline.
According to Redma, the decline reached 60-70% compared to the 2019 Election. One of the main factors influencing this situation is the entry of imported textile products that are much cheaper, causing orders for the production of campaign attributes to shift to imported products. "The remaining orders that we get are only for printing party logos on imported products," said Redma.
This phenomenon is further worsening the condition of the textile industry which has been hit by the decline in demand in the domestic market. Many textile companies have been forced to reduce their production capacity and carry out layoffs (PHK) to adjust to the weakening market conditions.
With tight competition from imported products and declining purchasing power in the domestic market, the Indonesian textile sector continues to be under pressure. The simultaneous regional elections which should have been an opportunity to boost demand for campaign attributes turned out to not bring great hope for domestic textile industry players.