REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANADO -- The trade ministry said the country's market of measuring and gauging tools (UTTP) is dominated by imported products mainly from China.

Director general of standardization and consumer protection Widodo, therefore, called for larger use of local products to sustain the domestic industry.

Consumers should choose local products over foreign products to sustain domestic industry, Widodo said at a metrology meeting here on Wednesday.

The policy to encourage the use of products having high local content is intensified, he said.

"We can't avoid head to head competition with foreign products which are superior in quality," he said.

He said the quality of local products of scales and other measuring and gauging tools need to be improved especially in facing the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

"Measuring , gauging and scales and equipment are potential manufactured products expected to survive the free market competition in this region after the AEC implementation next year," he said.

However, large imports flooding the domestic market especially from China and other ASEAN countries could be a potential force to cause the collapse of the domestic UTTP industry, he said.

"Optimization of the use of local products is a solution to enabling domestic UTTP industry to face the competition," he said.

The government has issued a presidential instruction No. 2 in 2009 on the use of local products in goods and service procurement by government agencies.

"Government institutions and agencies are required to prioritizing the use of local products to help boost domestic industry," he said.

The technical meeting on metrology from August 26-29 , 2014 used the theme of role of metrology in environmental preservation. The meeting is held by the trade ministry in cooperation with provincial administration of North Sulawesi.

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