President Jokowi Talks About Indonesia's Rejection At The G20

President Jokowi at the Anniversary of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI)/PHOTO VIA ANTARA

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo spoke about Indonesia's refusal to enter into an agreement that only allowed Indonesia to export raw materials to the G20.

"Yesterday, at the G20, 16 countries gathered to sign on the 'global supply chain'. I thought it would be good for us to join? As soon as we read that, oh my, we are told to export raw materials again. As soon as we want to enter the room, no, no, No, we're not going," said President Jokowi as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, December 22.

President Jokowi conveyed this at the PSI 7th Anniversary Commemoration event in 2021 which was also attended by Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, Agrarian and Spatial Planning of Indonesia/Deputy Head of the National Land Agency Surya Tjandra who is also a PSI cadre, PSI General Chair Giring Ganesha and PSI Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Grace Natalie and other PSI administrators.

"Everything disbanded didn't happen, only because we didn't want to sign everything, it was dispersed again, because I know that we are actually the only ones being targeted," said the President.

According to Jokowi, such courage is needed for Indonesia's future.

"We are afraid that we will be banned here, here. Our country will jump and we will make a leap if we dare to do what is called industrialization, downstreaming of our natural resources," added the President.

President Jokowi reiterated that he had decided to stop the export of raw materials from Indonesia.

"Nickel has stopped, next year I'm eyeing bauxite, stop bauxite, then stop copper, stop copper, stop tin. All value added is domestic, everything called value added prices and jobs are all domestic. But the enemy is the state "Go forward, we usually send the goods there," added the President.

Even so, President Jokowi admits there are risks when the government decides to stop exports of raw materials.

"At the WTO, you lose, it's okay to lose, but if you don't dare to try, when will we do downstreaming? When will we stop sending raw materials? Until when will we only be an exporting country of raw goods," said the President.

In fact, if Indonesia exports finished or semi-finished goods, the profits obtained, according to President Jokowi, could soar up to 10 times.

"Nickel alone is how many derivatives, combined plus copper it can be 'lithium battery', 'lithium ion', electric car battery, 'sodium ion', there are many derivatives that we can take from there. I believe it's only nickel business, right now In the past, there was a deficit with China, I believe because of nickel in the past 3 years, our exports have jumped by almost Rp. 280 trillion," explained the President.

With the downstream policy, President Jokowi is optimistic that by 2030 Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can increase three times.

"Please note this. Our estimate is that our 'income' per capita is between 11 thousand and 15 thousand US dollars. 20 thousand US dollars, thank God, but this does take courage (because) everyone is angry. Our nickel has been brought to the WTO, it's okay for us to face it," said the President.