Massive promotion of batik will be carried out in major world cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, London, and other big cities. The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) noted that Indonesia's batik exports in 2020 reached US$ 532.7 million or around Rp. 7.5 trillion. Meanwhile, exports of other handicraft products reached US$ 9 million or around Rp 128.3 billion, with the main export markets for handicrafts including the United States (US), Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Germany. Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Indonesian batik products played an important role for the national economy and succeeded in becoming the market leader of the world batik market. "The batik industry in Indonesia is able to make a significant contribution to the national economy and its products have been in demand in the global market," Agus said at the virtual peak of the 2021 Ministry of Industry's National Batik Day Commemoration, Wednesday (6/10).

With this great potential, the batik industry is included as one of the priority sub-sectors in the implementation of the Making Indonesia 4.0 integration roadmap. The batik industry gets development because it is considered to have great leverage in boosting national economic growth. In addition, batik products are one of the causes of the growth of the textile and apparel sector in Indonesia. The handicraft and batik industry is also one of the sectors that creates many job opportunities and is a sector dominated by small and medium industries (IKM). "There are around 47 thousand business units spread across 101 batik centers in Indonesia. In addition, the number of Indonesian handicraft industries is more than 700 thousand business units and absorbs more than 1.5 million business workers," he said.

Although Indonesian batik is the most famous batik in the world today, batik can also be found in various countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Iran and other countries on the African continent. Thus the use of batik in the world is increasingly popular so that it promises enormous economic potential. Some countries such as China and Malaysia are seriously making batik as an export commodity. These countries continue to develop batik printing machines with the most advanced technology. They also imitate the designs and patterns of Indonesian batik with the aim of seizing the market that has been filled by Indonesian batik. “With the increasing popularity of batik in the world, global competition includes the onslaught of imported products. This is a challenge faced by the National Batik industry, but we must be able to face it together," he said. Furthermore, Agus explained another challenge faced by the national batik industry, namely the diminishing human resource (HR) factor in the batik industry. Workers with high quality and skills are needed, besides that, human resources who have the ability to develop design innovations are also needed. In addition, the number of written batik craftsmen is increasingly limited and many are elderly. Therefore, there needs to be serious efforts to accelerate the regeneration process of written batik in Indonesia.

"This of course must be encouraged among the younger generation, by growing their interest and skills to enter the batik industry," he said. The former Minister of Social Affairs said that there was still a lot of homework to be done, mainly related to promotional programs that needed to be carried out by all stakeholders. For this reason, massive promotions will continue to be carried out in major world cities, such as in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, London, and other major cities in the world. His party will coordinate with the National Crafts Council (Dekranas), the Indonesian Batik Foundation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), and business actors to intensively promote Indonesian batik products. "I also ask the ranks at the Ministry of Industry to explore how we can help together with Dekranas and the Indonesian Batik Foundation to promote batik in big cities in the world," he said.
 
Sources: https://katadata.co.id/maesaroh/berita/615d3ce37e1a2/makin-diminati-dunia-ekspor-batik-mencapai-rp-7-5-triliun-pada-2020