JAKARTA - A number of small and medium industry (IKM) players in the country are ready to produce masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) to help the government in the effort to accelerate the handling of COVID-19. These SMIs are spread in West Java, Central Java, DKI Jakarta, Banten, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.
"As many as 88 percent of the 50 SMIs that filled out our questionnaire said they were able to produce PPE and masks," said Director General of Small, Medium and Various Industries (IKMA) Ministry of Industry, Gati Wibawaningsih in Jakarta, Monday (6/4).
Gati explained, the mask production capacity of each of the SMIs ranged from 50 to 500 pieces per day. Meanwhile, for PPE production capacity, they are able to make 20-250 pieces per day. Nevertheless, there are only 55 percent of SMIs who understand the standard of making masks. Thus, 77.5 percent of SMIs claimed to be able to produce masks and PPE that are not of medical standard.
For this reason, the Director General of IKMA encourages SMIs to be able to produce non-medical masks, bearing in mind their current needs are very high and the requirements are not too burdensome, so that SMIs are considered capable of producing them.
The effort is considered to be a solution to maintain the domestic SMI business in the midst of the outbreak of COVID-19 by utilizing the fabrics they own or in partnership with textile providers. However, Gati reminded the SMIs to self-declare or state the usefulness of the mask product made, for example by mentioning that the mask was a non-medical mask. (LM)