Minister Of Industry Agus Calls Saudi Arabia Interested In Working On MIND ID And Vale Downstream Projects

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expressed interest in participating in working on mineral downstream projects carried out by PT Mineral Industri Indonesia (MIND ID) and PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (INCO).

This was revealed after the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) of Saudi Arabia Bandar Bandar bin Ibrahim Alkhrayef held a meeting with the Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in his office, today.

"They have already spoken about MIND ID and Vale, where they will explore there is also interest in participation in Vale and MIND ID operations," Agus told reporters, Wednesday, April 16.

In addition to discussing mineral downstream cooperation, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also exploring opportunities for cooperation in the field of petrochemicals.

For industries in Indonesia, petrochemicals are important and inseparable.

Therefore, the Minister of Industry hopes that Saudi Arabia can become a partner in the development of the petrochemical industry in the country.

"Indonesia needs downstreaming from petrochemicals to support its derivative sectors, which are petrochemical mothers of all industry and Saudi Arabia has the power to cooperate with us. But, also Saudi Arabia can cooperate with us on how to become a world player in the context of developing downstreaming from minerals," he said.

According to Agus, until today Indonesia's trade in Saudi Arabia is still relatively low. Throughout 2024, Indonesia's trade in Saudi Arabia was recorded at only 3.3 billion US dollars.

In fact, both countries have great potential to be able to cooperate.

"We agree that Saudi and Indonesia are two countries that provide complementary services to each other. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has relatively just started its industrialization program and made Indonesia, which has been relatively long in building domestic industries and this can be used as a model," added Agus.