At B20 Summit, Jokowi Invites Australia To Production Of Electric Car Battery In Indonesia

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. (Photo: Doc. Setpres)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) invited Australian Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Norman Albanese to work together in producing batteries for electric cars. However, Jokowi asked for production to be carried out in Indonesia.

Jokowi said Indonesia and Australia could work together to create new renewable energy (EBT). The reason is, Australia has lithium while Indonesia has nickel. For your information, nickel and lithium are the raw materials needed to make electric car batteries. "I only offer to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Australia there is lithium, we (Indonesia) have nickel, if combined it can be an electric car battery," he said at the G20 Summit event, quoted from the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, November 14. "But I ask the lithium to be brought to Indonesia alone. We are jointly doing downstreaming in Indonesia," he continued. On that occasion, Jokowi said that Indonesia is indeed intensifying downstream to create added value in the country. "We really have to stop selling raw materials to get added value domestically. Both those related to income for countries, both those related to job creation. And we have started with nickel in order to build a large ecosystem EV battery, electric battery for electric cars," he said Jokowi also offered investors from other countries to jointly build green economy or green economy. He said, Indonesia has a very large renewable new energy potential. "The renewable energy potential in Indonesia is very large. There is a potential of 434 thousand megawatts (MWs), both from hydropower, geothermals, solar panels, winds and non-waves," Jokowi said. With this great potential, Jokowi said, now is the right time for investors from various countries to work together in terms of investing in Indonesia.

"Everything is there, this is an opportunity for investors to cooperate with Indonesia to bring investment, bring technology because this requires a lot of money, to work together to build a green economy in Indonesia," he said. Furthermore, Jokowi also said that the Indonesian government has prepared 30 thousand hectares (ha) of land in North Kalimantan for Green Industrial Park. "What I believe will later come in droves of investors to build green products from Indonesia. Because near that area there is a Kayan River that can produce clean energy, long energy of 13,000 MW, namely hydropower," he explained.