Gaikindo Wants Government to Provide Incentives for the Automotive Industry

KatadataOTO – The recent continuous decline in vehicle sales has made the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (Gaikindo) restless. The government is expected to intervene to help the market grow.

They also want the automotive industry to be given incentives like those provided during the pandemic.

“The government's role is very crucial for the automotive industry. We hope that in the short term, there will be incentives like during the pandemic,” said Kukuh Kumara, Secretary General of Gaikindo, as reported by Antara (17/08).

Moreover, the Malaysian market is currently very aggressive and only slightly behind Indonesia in 2024. This should certainly be a point of concern if the government wants to maintain its position as the largest automotive market in Southeast Asia.

Photo : Courtesy

He explained that throughout 2024, Malaysia managed to sell around 816,747 vehicles. That number is not too far from Indonesia, which only recorded 865,723 units.

Although smaller, the performance of car sales in Malaysia is still very positive. In fact, in recent months, they have caught up with Indonesia's achievements.

Based on data from Nikkei Asia in the second quarter of 2025, Malaysia successfully recorded new car sales of 183,366 units.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, only 169,578 units were released to the market in the second quarter of this year. If you look at it, that figure is far behind Malaysia.

The high sales figures are due to the government still providing various incentives for its people. Thus, the growth of the automotive segment continues to increase from year to year.

Photo : KatadataOTO

But if totaled from January to June 2025, the difference is reversed. This is because Indonesia managed to record sales of 374,740 units while Malaysia only had 373,636 units.

“Indeed, the market is not doing well this year because people's purchasing power continues to weaken and so on. So we'll wait until the end of the year to see if we lose to Malaysia (or not),” said Jongkie Sugiarto, Chairman I of Gaikindo, when contacted by KatadataOTO on Tuesday (12/08)