Minister Of Transportation Budi Alludes To Jokowi's Courage About Europe-US Which Is A Single Downstream Of Nickel, Becomes A Reflection In His Ministry

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi said the European Union and the United States (US) often interfered with the ban on Indonesia's nickel exports.

Budi said that Indonesia has always been neglected by the world. However, currently Indonesia is able to prove itself to be the third country with the highest economic growth among G20 members.

According to him, now Indonesia is starting to be taken into account in the eyes of the world.

One of them is the firmness of leadership or leadership owned by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), including in prohibiting the export of nickel ore and working on downstreaming in the country.

Nickel itself is one of the raw materials for electric vehicle batteries, especially those used in motorcycles and electric cars.

"In the past, the name nickel ore was brought from Sulawesi outside with raw materials, nothing was done so we didn't get anything like that," Budi said in the National Seminar entitled "The Green Financing Strategy for the Transportation Sector for Fair Railway Competitiveness" was monitored online in Jakarta, Wednesday, September 20.

"When we want to be smart, we imagine that apart from certain countries (downstream players in Indonesia) there is already a nickel ore development into aluminum, batteries, and so on. It's not fair that if Europe or the US judges we can't build (hilidation) ourselves, right? Elementary school children also know that's not true," he added.

Budi claims that this courage is a reflection of making important decisions, especially in his ministry, even though it is risky.

"Other countries judge that we are wrong, they are double standards, that's not true. This is a tough task for us to carry out everything," he said.

In addition, Budi also mentioned the issue of green financing for equitable transportation.

According to him, these two things are attracting each other. Because, green financing must be expensive.

Meanwhile, fair transportation means requiring the government to provide subsidies.

So far, said Budi, as much as 30 percent of the APBN received by his ministry has been used for transportation subsidies, both on land, sea, air, and trains.

Therefore, he asked for the cooperation of many parties, including experts in the development of mass transportation.

"We have to believe this is an ultimat concept that must be owned by at least experts first and also observers. If we make mass transportation, don't make comments (bad) like that," he concluded.