Neighboring Countries Follow Indonesian Steps To Downstream Mineral Mining

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif revealed that neighboring countries such as the Philippines have begun to follow in Indonesia's footsteps in limiting mineral exports in order to increase added value for the sake of domestic interests.

"The Philippines will also imitate Indonesia as well. (The Philippines) will limit the export of goods to be processed into finished goods," Arifin said in his remarks at the Mineral Mining Governance Synchronization Facility in Jakarta, Tuesday, March 21.

The mining commodities that will be limited by the Philippines are nickel and cooper. He continued, the Philippines has similarities with Indonesia, namely containing mineral ingredients such as Nickel and cooper in limited quantities so that it must be utilized.

"In terms of ASEAN, which is similar to our Philippines, which also has nickel and cooper because of the mineral mining flow in the area, all of them are between mineral shells and coopers but the number is not much," said Arifin.

Arifin further said that currently Indonesia also has stiff competition with other countries such as Vietnam in attracting investors to enter and develop potential raw mining materials in the country.

According to him, if it is not managed properly, Indonesia will run out of reserves and become an importer of finished goods.

"For this reason, it is necessary to attract domestic investment. We must create competitive ones from other places. For example, we with Vietnam are competing fiercely. We have excess resources that Vietnam does not have," he added.

Just so you know, starting June 2023 the government will ban the export of bauxite in order to increase the added value of exports. Previously, Indonesia had also stopped exporting nickel since January 1, 2020.

"The result of the export value of nickel was originally only IDR 17 trillion or 1.1 million US dollars at the end of 2014, an increase to IDR 326 trillion or 20.9 million US dollars in 2021 or an increase of 19 times," said President Joko Widodo.