Jokowi Calls Downstreaming Not Only Nickel And Mining, SME Products In The Form Of Seaweed And Coffee Too

President Joko Widodo with traders (Photo: presidentri.go.id)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the downstream policy was not only related to mining products but also touched commodities of raw materials produced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). "What is related to downstreaming, that downstreaming is not only for big ones, not just nickel matters, not mining matters, large copper, which is also SMEs we must industrialize, downstream all products that are still raw," said President Jokowi during a speech at the XVIII 2023 Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) agenda in Tangerang, Banten, followed online in Jakarta, Antara, Thursday, August 31. President Jokowi also mentioned a number of potential raw materials in the domestic SME sector that can be lost, such as coffee beans variants, sugar variants, seaweed, fine flour, and palm oil. All raw materials provided by nature in Indonesia are fully controlled for the needs of the domestic market. "Never do we continue to export in the form of raw seeds, don't make them like this. Dominate the domestic market, we must control the domestic market," he said. Jokowi said Indonesia's natural wealth in the form of seaweed is ranked second in the world as an export commodity that has not been touched by the downstream policy. "I see that many seaweed has not been lost. We are number two seaweed, but the exports are raw. I checked where the exports are, to the Philippines, to Thailand, why not make the industry itself here," he said. "The flour so that as handicrafts can also be lost to produce a jump in added value for SMEs," said President Jokowi. In addition to providing added value for products, said the Head of State, downstream policies also provide opportunities for job procurement as well as contributing to state revenues. Jokowi said Indonesian farmers were able to produce 46 million tons of palm oil per year which could be lost to the country's medium-sized industry for the need for producing soap, cocoa butter, or oleofood so that it could produce multiple added value.

"The palm oil planted by our farmers when left out, because we have 46 million tons per year, we can enter the medium industry, can be soap, cocoa butter, oleopood, the folding can be 79 times, eight times, five times. This must be our awareness," he said.