JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Finance (Wamenkeu) Suahasil met with his colleague in the previous cabinet, Ignasius Jonan, who had served as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources for the 2016-2019 period in an official agenda initiated by PLN.
On that occasion, Suahasil shared a story about Jonan's strategic role when he succeeded in bringing Indonesia to acquire Freeport with a 51 percent share capitalization.
"Pak Jonan, my senior in government, showed us all when he was Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, how to negotiate a change in a work contract into a mining business permit for Freeport. The result was that Freeport managed to return to the motherland with 51 percent stake owned by Indonesia," he said at the PLN Leaders Talk Series seminar, Monday, February 13.
According to Suahasil, Jonan is not a new figure for the Ministry of Finance. The reason is, the former bureaucrat who also held the position of President Director of PT KAI is also known as a partner of the government's professional work.
"Mr. Jonan is an automated economist, especially an accountant, who has been interacting with the Ministry of Finance for a long time. He showed himself that an accountant who leads can be like PT KAI (transformation)," he said.
Suahasil added that the government is proud that until today Freeport is still operating and is an important source of state revenue.
"From this structured and systematic negotiation, it must be the benchmark for other negotiation processes, and Pak Jonan has shown how the state must take a position," he stressed.
For information, Freeport is a US company engaged in exploration, mining, processing, and marketing of copper, gold and silver concentrates in the highlands of Tembagapura, Mimika, Central Papua.
After going through privatization, PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) is part of the holding of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) in the mining sector whose shares are dominated by Inalum and Freeport-McMMoRAN.
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