REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SEMARANG - Coordinating Minister of Economy Hatta Rajasa encouraged domestic herbal insudtries as Indonesia had an huge opportunity to develop and market herbal medicine amid the emerging trend of using herbal to cure diseases.
With the total medicine import only seven billion USD, national pharmacy company has a great chance to pour the market. "Our middle class has high demand for healthy life," Rajasa said on Saturday during his visit to a herbal company, Sido Muncul.
Global medical trend also tends to be back to nature. People now prefer natural medicine without artificial chemical substance.
Rajasa predicts that in 2030, middle class will have buying power above 1.8 trillion USD. Their biggest outcome will be spent for education and health. In the other hand, Indonesia, having thousands of traditional companies, is famous for traditional medicine.
"We cannot let imported herbs fill our market. I believe that we have better products than the imported ones," he said, adding that government encourages national pharmacy company to use local ingredients to reduce the dependency on imported substances.