Improving Investment Climate, Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Arranges Steps To Improve Mining Business

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif emphasized the need for an attractive investment climate and clear legal certainty to attract domestic investment.

"Once an agreement has been agreed for investment, it is valid until the end of the agreement period. They (investors) are afraid that there will be a sudden change, then the old agreement will be canceled and a new one will be applied. This is what is called contract sanctity," he said. Arifin at the Seminar on Synchronization of Mining Governance, Main Minerals from a Political, Legal and Security Perspective, at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Tuesday 21 March.

He continued, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources has also drawn up steps to improve the Mining business, covering five activities, namely national mining governance, alignment with national interests, legal certainty and ease of investment, environmental management, and law enforcement.

"What we are currently doing is improving work patterns for the mining business. So we have made a list based on input from stakeholders, academics, parliament, and improvements who always provide input. That's why I always communicate with the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs on how we can get reinforcement in this sector, Arifin said.

The corrective steps that have been taken are drafting regulations, implementing the One Map policy, utilizing digital-based systems, providing incentives, integrating application systems, establishing a Coal Compensation Fund (DKB) manager, and collaborating with the Ministry of Industry to further increase added value.

In addition, from a law enforcement perspective, the formation of a Law Enforcement Task Force for the ESDM sector is currently being carried out by involving Ministries and Related Institutions, as well as plans to form a Directorate General of Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Furthermore, he added, the value of Mineral commodities has now skyrocketed, when compared to 10 years ago. The demand for mineral commodities is quite high and there are not many natural resources, causing mineral commodities to be urgently needed and increasing the selling value.

Arifin assesses the need for good management of Indonesia's natural resources. One way is through increased exploration of mineral and coal reserve resources, including the potential for rare earth metals and critical minerals.

"We need to highlight these critical minerals, because these critical minerals include nickel, which we have the largest reserves in the world. Then we also have copper, without copper we cannot electrify our country. We also have bauxite which can produce aluminum which can support for the needs of the electricity industry. I said earlier that we have rare earth metals, we are working on this because there is quite a lot of potential, and we need to do an exploration to determine the number of resources," said Arifin.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is also developing mineral commodities, namely by increasing the added value of commodities, strengthening industrial structures, and increasing domestic business opportunities, with the availability of new jobs. Downstreaming to increase added value is carried out, among others, for nickel, bauxite, and tin commodities. The ban on nickel exports, for example, has been implemented since January 1, 2020, as an implementation of the Minerba Law.