Hashim Yakin Downstreaming Will Drive Economic Growth To 8 Percent

JAKARTA - Special Envoy for the President for Climate and Energy Hashim Djojohadikusumo believes downstream projects will encourage Indonesia's economic growth.

"We are very confident that we can achieve an economic growth rate of 8 percent or more. So, the 8 percent figure is the target, but I believe that we can exceed the 8 percent target," he said, quoted by Antara, Thursday, May 22.

According to him, various downstream projects will encourage Indonesia's economic growth.

"This will include manufacturing, adding value to our different commodities," added Hashim.

He explained that Indonesia has various commodities that can be used for downstream programs, ranging from nickel, copper, bauxite, to coal, which can produce synthetic gas (singgas) to be converted into liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The government is also said to have the potential to produce dimethyl ether (DME), which comes from coal commodities, to replace LPG fuel.

"These are all various things that we want to do to encourage the process of adding value and doing what we call downstream Indonesian commodities. Those are the things that I think Mr. Rosan (Minister of Investment and Downstreaming Rosan Roeslani) and the government are very enthusiastic about making it happen," said Hashim.

On the same occasion, Rosan explained that the government is making investment in the clean energy sector or sustainable energy one of the priorities that is to be carried out in order to achieve 8 percent economic growth in 2029.

This is intended to carry out net zero emissions (NZE) commitments by 2060, even to be accelerated by 2050.

Currently, the potential for sustainable energy in Indonesia is around 3,700 gigawatts (GW). However, the newly installed capacity is only 14.4 GW or less than 1 percent.

Some of the largest investment potentials in sustainability energy are solar, hydro, bioenergy, wind, to geothermal.

He stressed that the use of sustainable energy will continue to be pushed to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2060.