Jakarta - The Indonesian government targets to boost textile export sales to 11.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2009supported by factory restructuring and modernizing program that started in 2007, an official said Wednesday.
The country`s textile export rose by 6.1 percent to 10.03 billion dollars in 2007 from 9.45 billion a year earlier, Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said during a visit to Bandung.
"The figure doesn`t include revenues from small-scale and home industries," he was quoted by the leading news website Detikcom assaying.
“The textile industry has consistently contributed over 5 billion dollars (a year) in international trade surpluses over the last ten years," he said when opening an international textile exhibition in the West Java capital.
"The biggest problem in the textile industry has been aging machines which are no longer productive and competitive.
“With the ongoing restructuring program, I`m optimistic about continued growth in textile exports," he said.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com (3 April 2008)