"We will move towards what is dubbed as a green economy, because we have great power here, too. This strategy must begin to be organized," he said.
"Because in 2030, people in Europe, America, may have to begin to stop (using) and no longer want to receive items that were resulted from fossil energy. That's the law they will prepare," he elaborated.
At the G20 meeting on October 30–31 2021, the leaders of many countries discussed the green economy, President Jokowi said.
"In the G20, our talk just revolved around that. People just resorted to this, to the green economy, and we are aware that we have great power in this green economy," he affirmed.
To this end, the government will start building a green industrial park in North Kalimantan in December 2021, he informed.
"The energy also comes from green energy from the Kayan River. We have only one river, the Kayan river, which will more or less produce 11–13 thousand megawatts. That's just one river. Indonesia has more than 4,400 large rivers and medium rivers," he said.
The Mamberamo River in Papua can generate up to 24 thousand megawatts of electrical energy, he noted.
"This is just two rivers. If 4,440 rivers are rushed to hydropower, we can imagine (the sheer amount of energy we can generate from the) new one called hydropower. This is just hydropower alone. Not to mention the second one, which is also green (energy), being geothermal. We have (additional) 29 thousand megawatts (of energy)," Jokowi said.
Indonesia has a wealth of new and renewable energy, such as wind energy and ocean current energy, he noted.
"This is a power that we must consider and immediately utilize for the future of our children and grandchildren. This power is what we want to prepare, and later next month, we will build what I mentioned before, a green industrial park," he said.
The President said that there are already many entities queuing up to invest in green economy initiatives in Indonesia.
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"(So many) already queuing to (invest). Why? The energy is green, but it requires a very large investment, and we don't have the capability, so the private sector is welcomed to join," the President explained.
The strategy of inviting foreign investors to Indonesia is also being applied to the downstream industry, he said.
"In the country's grand strategy, we need this. We are not talking company by company, but what is more important is how this downstream industrialization is conducted, how to integrate this, nickel is integrated with copper, integrated with bauxite, with everything. If integrated, the finished goods will be finished by purely our own ingredients. It can be electric cars, electric vehicles, everything (will be made) by us," he added.
President Jokowi further said that he does not want Indonesia to limit itself as an exporter of raw goods, adding he wished for the domestic industry to have added value while creating jobs.
"Whether we like it or not, people will come to build (in Indonesia). And people are starting to realize. We keep saying stop, stop, stop (fossil fuel use), because rare earth is here."
"Another example is stainless steel which is turned into syringes. Demand from the world for that is up to 10 billion syringes. We import a lot, we don't know how many million syringes, but soon we will be able to create them, because we have stopped (exporting) the goods. Whether they like it or not, people have to make them here," he asserted.
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Translator: Desca L N, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
