Prabowo Values Jokowi's Downstream Policy To Increase State Revenue

JAKARTA - Minister of Defense (Menhan) Prabowo Subianto assessed that the downstream policy of natural resources launched by President Joko Widodo was able to increase state revenues.

"Pak Jokowi's strategy is correct, it will not allow our wealth (SDA) to be sold cheaply as raw material to foreign nations. It doesn't want to be like that anymore, all our natural wealth must be processed in Indonesia," Prabowo said when giving a speech at the Sarasehan for the Improvement of Islamic Boarding School Independence at JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta, Saturday, quoted by Antara.

According to him, the policy is very appropriate because if natural resources are exported in raw form, it will not be optimal in increasing the added value of the nation's economy, so it is important to process these natural resources before they are exported.

He said that this processing process must cover the upstream to downstream stages so that processing factories are located in the country.

"So, if our natural resources are in raw form, it means upstream. We don't want to allow them to sell cheaply, in raw form again. It must be processed, processed, processed until downstream factories are in Indonesia," said Prabowo.

He gave an example that in 2017, nickel was exported in raw form, resulting in revenue of US$3.3 billion or around Rp50 trillion.

However, after the nickel export ban was imposed by President Joko Widodo in 2020, revenue from nickel exports in 2022 increased dramatically to 33.8 billion US dollars, up 10 times or 1000 percent.

He considered that the policy to prohibit the export of raw nickel had a positive impact on state revenues, as well as to create jobs for Indonesian children.

"This is what we can now use to help our people. It's been extraordinary for BLT, raskin assistance, and for BPJS," said Prabowo.

In addition, he also gave an example of the concept of natural resource processing with an analogy of industrial trees. "According to him, through structured planning, the added value of commodities such as nickel can increase significantly, even up to 67 times.