Kadin Said That Without New Technology, Indonesia Could Lose A Great Opportunity

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) Heru Dewanto revealed that the social system in Indonesia has not been able to support the creation of sustainable growth machines.

"Our business world prefers to recycle old money. Starting from extracting petroleum to becoming a net importer, followed by clearing forests, then palm oil, dredging coal and other mineral resources," he said in his statement, Monday, March 3.

According to him, to achieve Indonesia Gold 2045, this country must switch to innovation and new technology applications that can generate new money through new economic machines.

"Only then can we reach Indonesia Gold 2045, because in fact after more than 30 years since we entered the middle income country group in 1993, old economic machines have not been able to lift Indonesia out of the trap to become a developed country," he explained.

Heru said that one of the economic machines that is relied on to achieve progress is industrialization and downstreaming.

However, Heru said that based on the history of developed countries, their success really depends on the role of industry where downstreaming requires accuracy and deep technical knowledge.

According to him, the most logical step is to start downstreaming Indonesia's leading commodities, such as nickel, which is ranked first, sixth-ranked bauxite and second-ranked lead in the world.

Heru emphasized that what is more important is to make superior commodities a competitive advantage by choosing the right technology.

However, Heru explained that especially in technology extraction on the most upstream value chain such as nickel extraction technology using High Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) which is widely criticized for its B3 waste which far exceeds the amount of raw materials (feeding).

Therefore, Heru suggested developing alternative technologies that are more environmentally friendly, such as LFP, hydrogen, and Sodium Ion-based batteries.

"As a result, the world is starting to switch to using other battery technologies such as lithium ferro phosphat (LFP), hydrogen and Sodium Ion," he said.

In addition, Heru conveyed that the bauxite extraction technology, which has been using the Karl Joseph Bayer method since 1888, which produces B3 waste in the form of red mud, also requires new technology solutions that are more environmentally friendly.

According to him, more environmentally friendly extraction technology will be key to ensuring Indonesia remains a major player in the nickel-based world battery industry and without technological changes, it will be able to lose a great opportunity.

Heru said that all parties, especially the government, must provide full support to innovation actors.

"In Indonesia, and maybe in several other countries, if an innovator fails in an innovation commercialization effort, you can imagine the impact it will have on his reputation as an innovator. Funders will stay away and the community around the innovation will judge him as a failure," he said.

Even worse, Heru said that some innovators can even face legal problems related to their innovation, which has the potential to harm the country.