PAPUAAROUND – Director General of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) Isy Karim said that West Papua Province has great potential in national trade and tourism.
Isy explained that West Papua is rich in agricultural and forest products. In addition, tourism products are also quite complete, ranging from underwater tours to forests and mountains.
“West Papua has tremendous potential to be appointed. There are quite a lot of commodities ranging from coffee, nutmeg, seaweed, tourism starting from under the sea, nature reserves, tourist forests and many more so it needs to be raised,” said Isy in the Proud Made in Indonesia webinar: Let’s West Papua Go Global followed in Jakarta, Monday (12/6/2023).
Based on data from the Ministry of Trade, West Papua’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2023 was 3.13 percent on an annual basis.
The contribution to the regional gross domestic product (GDP) according to business sector, which was quite high, came from the food and beverage processing industry of 29.56 percent. Followed by mining and quarrying 18.98 percent and construction 11.71 percent.
Isy said the largest export value in West Papua in March 2023 came from oil and gas which reached US$276.31 million or 98.89 percent of total exports. While non-oil and gas amounted to 3.09 million US dollars.
Furthermore, China is West Papua’s main export destination country with a contribution of US$171.51 million or 61.38 percent of total exports.
“For this reason, these are things that we need to raise, one of which is within the framework of the Proud Made in Indonesia National Movement and Proud to Travel in Indonesia,” said Isy.
The Proud Made in Indonesia (BBI) and Proud Tourism in Indonesia (BBWI) National Movements were held on 10-12 May 2023 to introduce more superior micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) products.
This program is an opportunity to encourage the products of micro, small and medium enterprises to upgrade so that they have a broad marketing reach. In addition, there is a lot of tourism potential that can also be developed.
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