The development of wellness tourism could help expand the market for traditional medicines and cosmetics, the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) has said.

“Indonesia has biodiversity. Its natural ingredients can be processed into herbal products, herbal medicines, and cosmetics. This is what we call wellness tourism,” BPOM head Penny K Lukito said at the ‘Assistance Seminar for Herbal and Cosmetic MSMEs’, accessed from here on Wednesday.

Wellness tourism is also an alternative to explore the economic potential of tourism, which combines tourism and health aspects, she added.

According to Lukito, Indonesia possesses great potential to develop wellness tourism that is based on local wisdom.

“It cannot be separated from the utilization of natural ingredients in the form of various herbal and cosmetic products that have been passed down from generation to generation,” she said.

However, there are still challenges to utilizing the opportunity, especially those faced by MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in terms of permission, obtaining raw materials, capital, accessing information technology, and the capacity of human resources, she added.

“Therefore, the BPOM should continuously assist in a bid to improve the quality of herbal and cosmetic products from upstream to downstream,” Lukito said.

The BPOM head emphasized that her agency will continue to strive to assist traditional medicines and cosmetics MSMEs in maintaining and improving their product quality so that they remain competitive, both domestically and internationally.

She affirmed that the agency has developed several programs to support the development of MSMEs, such as training, technical guidance, and assistance, which are aimed at assisting business players, both in preparing production facilities and obtaining product distribution permits.

“We always provide assistance from training, technical guidance, to facilitating registration. We have provided that,” she remarked.

Source: Antara News