Prabowo Will Prioritize Downstreaming At 21 Commodities If Elected As President

Prabowo Subianto's presidential candidate. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Prabowo Subianto's presidential candidate (Readpres) admits that it will prioritize downstreaming in 21 commodities.

This includes continuing the downstream program that has been run by the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin government in the mining sector.

The 21 commodities that are the priority of the downstream program are coal, nickel, tin, copper, bauxite, steel, silver gold, asphalt Buton, petroleum, natural gas, palm oil, rubber, biofuels, log wood, pine sap, shrimp, fishery, crab, seaweed, and salt.

Prabowo said the 21 commodities are strategic commodities in the world.

According to him, downstreaming is the key to boosting Indonesia's economy in the future.

Therefore, continued Prabowo, this downstream program must be continued by the next government.

The government is currently running a downstream program for nickel, copper, tin, and bauxite commodities.

The most important strategy is downstreaming. Downstreaming is absolutely what we have to do, "he said at Sarasehan 100 Indonesian Economists in Jakarta, Wednesday, November 8.

According to Prabowo, with the downstream policy, Indonesia will no longer become an exporting country for raw materials but finished goods that have more value. That way, he said, this would increase state revenue.

Sometimes with a policy, we can change the fate of a nation. With downstreaming, we can stop the issuance of state wealth," he said.

Prabowo gave an example, such as the nickel downstream program.

He said, exports of nickel products in 2017 were only US$3.3 billion.

However, after the export ban on nickel ore and downstreaming since 2020, the export value of nickel products rose to USD 33.8 billion in 2022.

Prabowo assessed that the same policy could also be carried out in other commodities.

He admitted that he would make the downstream policy for these 21 commodities more attractive to investors.

"With the policy of prohibiting the export of nickel as raw material, and there are incentives for investors to build smelters in Indonesia, if this is also implemented in 21 other commodities, I think the direction is clear, investors from anywhere, from abroad can participate in the processing process there," he said.

Prabowo said, if there are investors who object to the downstream program and do not want to build in Indonesia, the government can refuse it.

"If the private sector wants to enter, please, foreign private, please. But if no one wants to enter, we must not hesitate, if necessary, the government will build a smelter and so on," he said.