Indonesia plans to apply 500 product quality standards

The National Standardization Agency (BSN) of Indonesia planned to issue 500 new product quality standards known as Indonesian national standard (SNI) next year in an attempt to boost competitiveness of products, an official said here on Thursday. Chairman of National Standardization Agency of Indonesia Bambang Prasetya said that the new standard would be imposed in many sectors, including agriculture, foods, electronic, industry, construction and others. Prasetyo said that currently the agency had applied over 9,500 SNIs. The chairman said that some of the quality standard had been used by the international communities, and the government would seek to make more Indonesian standards be adopted by the foreign communities, which indicates that the country's standards are qualified internationally. "We have striven to make more our standards used by the international communities," he said at Jakarta Convention Center. To boost the competitiveness of Indonesia's products at the global market, the chairman said that Indonesia had adopted several international quality standards. "But, (for the products planned to enter Indonesian market), Indonesia applies its own standard which has criteria adjusted with Indonesian condition," he said. Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Rajasa said that with more-integrated global economy, Indonesia needed to boost its competitiveness. "Therefore, our standard must be able to step up our competitiveness," said Hatta at the center. Indonesia's export is account of about 26 percent of the GDP and its huge domestic market of 238 million populations has been a target for foreign products.