Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) for Associations and Associations, Vishnu W. Pettalolo welcomed the IFFINA 2024 Furniture and Design Exhibition which is expected to build closer partnerships between Indonesian furniture businesses and international partners. The exhibition, organized by the Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Industry Association (ASMINDO), will take place on September 14-17, 2024 at ICE BSD City, Tangerang Banten.

Wisnu said that Kadin as a strategic partner of the government supports efforts to achieve the furniture export target through the utilization of domestic products in accordance with Presidential Instruction Number 2 of 2022, in order to increase the competitiveness of domestic products while encouraging national economic growth.

"With a positive trend, hopefully it can increase the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs to increase exports," he said during a press conference at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (22/5/2024).

In the IFFINA 2024 Furniture Industry Gathering, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said that amid various domestic and global economic challenges, Indonesia's furniture industry showed good performance. Teten said that data for the last five years (2018-2022) showed a fairly consistent increase in exports of furniture products, with the export value in 2022 reaching 2.9 billion US dollars or around Rp 46.4 trillion, up from 2.8 billion US dollars or Rp 44.8 trillion from the previous year.

Teten said this increase shows positive momentum and optimism in achieving the furniture industry export target set by the government of US$5 billion or around Rp80 trillion by 2024.

On the other hand, Teten said the Indonesian furniture industry is faced with various challenges, such as the availability of raw materials, the need for design innovation, and improving human resource skills.

He said that the government continues to strive to improve the industry's competitiveness and achieve the set export target by creating a conducive business ecosystem.

Efforts include providing integrated market intelligence and one-stop access to information for export aggregators, providing financing, and developing a home for small industrial products to expand overseas, the Indonesia Trading House, to expand export marketing networks and make Indonesia a global trade hub.