Indonesia Targets To Be The Largest Petrochemical Producer Country In Southeast Asia

JAKARTA – The government through the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) is aiming to become the country with the largest petrochemical production in Southeast Asia.

The Director-General of Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Textile Industries (IKFT) of the Ministry of Industry, Ignatius Warsito, said that from 2020 to 2030, the government was trying to oversee the construction of giant chemical industry projects with a total investment value of US$31 billion.

He said the investment is to strengthen commodities in the upstream chemical sector and be able to substitute petrochemical products that are still imported.

"The national industrial capacity for these products currently reaches 7.1 million tons per year", he said in an official statement quoted on Sunday, April 3.

According to Ignatius, to meet the increasing domestic demand, it is necessary to increase its production capacity.

"Through a large investment in the petrochemical industry which is currently fully supported by the government, Indonesia will become the number one petrochemical producing country in ASEAN", he said.

It is important to note that the chemical industry is the top three contributors to the performance of the non-oil and gas processing industry and spurs national economic growth.

Therefore, the government continues to focus on developing investment in the chemical industry to be able to substitute imports of chemical materials and goods.

"In 2021, the export value of chemicals and chemical goods will reach 18.86 billion US dollars. In the midst of the pandemic and economic recovery, we continue to strive to improve the trade balance deficit in the chemical industry sector", he explained.

Furthermore, the petrochemical industry is a strategic sector at the upstream level which is the basic capital and main prerequisite for the development of downstream industries such as plastics, fiber cloth, textiles, packaging, electronics, automotive, medicine, and other important industries.

"The success or failure of the government in developing the national industry, one of which is greatly influenced by the profile of the petrochemical industry", concluded Ignatius.