Bahlil Calls Indonesia's Industry Lost To Vietnam And Thailand, How Come?

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Investment Minister/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia said industrial development in the country is still inferior to Vietnam and Thailand. This is because so far, domestic industries tend not to provide added value, even though resources are abundant.

For example, said Bahlil, one of the domestic industries that should dominate is furniture. This is because the supply of wood is very abundant and of high quality. However, until now the domestic furniture industry has not been able to penetrate the top 10 world players.

"Now our industrial development has lost to Vietnam and Thailand," he said in a virtual dialogue, in Jakarta, Wednesday, September 8.

Bahlil said, another industry that could actually become a champion on the international stage is mining. However, the industry is still sluggish to this day.

In fact, continued Bahlil, mining is very abundant, especially in eastern Indonesia. Then, there is also the fishing industry, which is almost evenly distributed throughout the region.

"We once had a golden age as well as a gold mine, but until now the downstreaming is still like that (not optimal)," he explained.

However, said Bahlil, Indonesia has the opportunity to become a global player in the electric vehicle industry. Moreover, nickel reserves in Indonesia are very abundant. Even the amount reaches 25 percent of the total world reserves.

For your information, nickel is the main raw material for the manufacture of lithium batteries. Meanwhile, lithium batteries are components used as fuel for electric vehicles.

"Now we want to be the largest producing country for car battery development and yesterday I reported on September 15, 2021, we have started the groundbreaking of the construction of the LG (Consortium) factory which we signed in early 2021 for 9.8 billion US dollars," he said.