REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PALEMBANG - Fashion industry in South Sumatera eyes the market in Middle East as government tries to enhance fashion industry as an effort to expand export commodity from the province, which currently depends only on rubber and crude palm oil (CPO).

"International trade exhibition shows that visitors from Middle East love Palembang traditional cloth such as jumputan (tie dyed fabric -Ed)  and blongsong (woven fabric -Ed)," the Head of Foreign Trade at Trade and Industry Department in South Sumatera, Ahmad Mirza, said on Sunday. 

He added that regional government tried to open trade route to Middle East. Regional government will also cooperate with local artisans to maintain the trade traffic. 

"The artisans must increase their capacity to produce large quantities of fabric," he said. "If they are unable to do that, we can only depend on fairs," he added.

According to Statistics Indonesian the export value of South Sumatera per November 2012 hit 332.72 million USD. Non-oil and gas export, such as rubber, CPO, and timber, contributed to 288.22 million USD.

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