Aiming For 8 Percent Economic Growth In The Prabowo Era, This Is The Direction Of The Nickel Downstream Policy

Illustration - nickel mine. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - The Prabowo-Gibran government will encourage sustainable nickel downstream as an effort to achieve 8 percent economic growth.

Deputy Chairperson of the Prabowo-Gibran TKN Team who is also Deputy Chairman of Commission VII DPR RI Eddy Soeparno revealed, out of a total of 130 million tons of world nickel reserves, 55 million tons or the equivalent of 42 percent are stored in Indonesia.

By economic calculation, nickel exports in 2023, Indonesia received IDR 106.59 trillion.

The challenge is how to ensure that the Indonesian government in the future implements nickel downstream in a sustainable manner, said Eddy Soeparno as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, September 30.

Eddy said, along with the export ban on raw nickel since January 1, 2020, the mining processing industry or nickel smelters have emerged in Indonesia.

The Prabowo-Gibran team also claimed that increasing the smelter capacity had a significant impact on increasing Indonesia's nickel production and supply in the global market.

In 2023, Indonesia's nickel supply flooded 55 percent of global supplies and is expected to rise to 64 percent throughout 2024.

Based on research by the Katadata Insight Center, in the next 5-10 years, nickel supplies from Indonesia are expected to continue to increase and dominate.

According to Eddy, mineral downstreaming, especially nickel, is not only strategic to increase added value, but also to drive energy transition through the electric vehicle ecosystem.

Indonesia has great potential to lead the global nickel downstream market, including batteries for electric vehicles. This is in line with the world's need for electric vehicles," said Eddy.

However, he said, Indonesia faces challenges in ensuring the process of downstreaming nickel and energy transitions so as not only to focus on the economic aspect, but also to pay attention to Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) principles.

"Especially in terms of using environmentally friendly energy, such as reducing dependence on coal-fired power plants," said Eddy.