“We have nickel, copper, and also tin. All the components needed for electric cars are in Indonesia," he said at the opening of the 2023 XVIII PP Muhammadiyah Youth Conference in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Wednesday.
Hence, Indonesia is keen on building a large electric vehicle ecosystem, Jokowi said.
If the ecosystem is already established, then the country will be able to produce components of electric vehicles needed by other countries, he added.
"We must have good products that could make other countries depend on us. The raw materials are all in Indonesia, including for electric vehicle batteries. The future of this ecosystem will become big in Indonesia," he said.
Currently, he affirmed that the country needed to integrate the downstream nickel industry in Sulawesi Island with the copper industry in Sumbawa and Papua and bauxite industry in West Kalimantan and Riau Islands.
"We must be able to integrate those three aspects into one called an electric vehicle battery and an even bigger ecosystem for electric cars that will be needed by all countries in the future," Jokowi emphasized.
Thus, Indonesia will obtain significant added value from the processing of natural resources. In addition, Indonesia should start foregoing the habit of exporting raw natural materials, he said.
"We have been free from the colonial period that always exported raw materials. We do not need it again," he remarked.
According to the head of state, downstreaming natural resources was also one of the efforts to make Indonesia a developed country. Jokowi noted that a developed country can make other nations depend on the products it manufactures.
"Taiwan and South Korea can move forward because they have products that are needed by big companies. South Korea has a digital component that everyone needs and Taiwan produces chips," he said.
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Translator: Indra Arief P, Resinta S
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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