Jakarta- Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said that the government is determined to make Indonesia a key global player in the commodity-based downstream industry given its enormous natural resource potential.

The government is focusing commodity downstreaming on 3 groups, namely agro-based industries such as the oleochemical industry and mineral-based industries such as the mineral and metal smelter industry.

The others are oil and gas and coal-based industries such as the coal-to-methanol project.

“The government also continues to encourage the potential of natural resources,” the minister said.

“An example is Indonesia has the world’s largest reserves of nickel, and the President’s direction to reduce exports of raw materials and downstream products continues to be increased,” Hartarto added in an official statement released here on Friday.

The government is also increasing the downstreaming of leading mineral and metal-based commodities such as bauxite, tin, and nickel.

Refining and processing bauxite into aluminum end-products is targeted to increase the national income from Rp21 trillion (US$1.3 billion to Rp62 trillion (US$4.1 billion)

The downstreaming of tin metal is also expected to produce rare earth metals, which are important components for various current technologies.

In the nickel sector, after the success of the initial downstream phase with the growth of pyrometallurgical smelters producing ferronickel and stainless steel, the government has started pushing for the second phase.

This is being done by making Indonesia a center for electric vehicle battery production.

“Downstream efforts continue to be encouraged to add added value to the industry,” he said.

“The government also provides a number of things such as industrial infrastructure, creating a conducive industrial business environment, issuing fiscal incentives, and encouraging human resources to keep abreast of technological developments,” he added.

Source: Antara News