Minister Of Industry Agus Gumiwang Reveals New Strategy For Indonesia's Industrialization

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita revealed that various new strategies to spur industrialization in the country are contained in the framework of the New National Industrialization Strategy (SBIN).

While giving a public lecture at Hiroshima University, Japan, Monday, July 14, he said, Indonesia is currently developing a new approach in industrialization based on a dynamic global context, as well as answering increasingly complex domestic challenges.

The Indonesian government has launched Astacita, a national development vision that includes eight major missions. Six of them have now been operationalized through a strategic framework known as SBIN," he said, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, July 15.

The Minister of Industry emphasized that this SBIN is not just a continuation of the past approach, but rather a renewal of the best ideas in the development economy, which have been adapted to the context of Indonesia and embedded in a global reality that is multipolar, digitized, and moving towards decarbonization.

One of the programs implemented is downstream natural resources. The Minister of Industry gave an example, until 2019, Indonesia was still exporting nickel, bauxite, and palm oil in raw form.

These products create low added value, limited employment, and result in unstable profits.

However, since then, the government has started requiring the processing of these resources in the country through downstreaming policies.

This transformation is clearly visible in the Morowali Industrial Estate, Central Sulawesi. Formerly, a relatively isolated area, has now transformed into a global competitive industrial center, home to a multinational corporate cluster in the nickel refining and battery components sector," he said.

In the area, tens of thousands of Indonesian workers are now involved in the production of high-quality non-fit steel and nickel sulfate for batteries.

Similar models are also being applied to other commodities such as bauxite, copper, and palm oil.

Even now, Indonesia is entering a new value chain for strategic commodities such as cobalt, lithium, and rare soil, namely important elements in supporting the global green energy transition," he continued.

Furthermore, the importance of mastery of industrial technology. Agus explained, through the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap, the government spurred industrial transformation from traditional production systems to smarter, more connected, and digitally integrated systems.

"In the textile sector, for example, now the sensor-based and coloring system has been implemented without waste," he said.

Furthermore, in the food and beverage sector, blockchain technology is applied for product tracing from upstream to downstream.

Meanwhile, in the automotive component sector, the integration of technology encourages robotic assembly and a just-in-time logistics system.

According to him, this change is not only targeting large companies. Thousands of small and medium industries (IKM) have also been introduced to similar technologies through government-funded excellence and training centers, including close cooperation with training and industry institutions in Japan.

Agus said that another program is industrialization of green, which states that the era of development that sacrifices the environment for economic growth has ended.

This is because markets, investors, and regulators are demanding the industry to meet the principles of sustainability. Therefore, Indonesia's industrialization strategy is now adopting the principle of ecological modernization.

For example, in the Batang Industrial Estate, Central Java, the government has required a system of reuse of wastewater, energy efficiency, and the application of industrial symbiosis.

Furthermore, the Minister of Industry highlighted the importance of developing human resources (HR) as the foundation of the success of industrialization.

Therefore, the government continues to strengthen vocational education through the construction of polytechnics, revitalization of vocational centers, and the use of digital learning platforms.