Jakarta (ANTARA) - Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, through a statement on Saturday, urged Muslim countries to partake in downstreaming in Indonesia in view of its huge potential.

While serving as key speaker during the Islamic Development Bank Group's (IsDB's) Annual Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, he noted that several investments had entered Indonesia.

However, on average, investment from Islamic countries for the last five years had only reached 5.5 percent of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that entered Indonesia.

The notion of solidarity among Islam countries was raised, but as a country, with the biggest Muslim population in the world, most of Indonesia's investment came from non-Islamic countries instead, he highlighted.

According to Lahadia, as a country with major potential, Indonesia is developing a battery ecosystem for electric cars that will become the vehicle of the future.

Moreover, Indonesia has 25 percent of the world's nickel reserves, which is the main raw material for electric vehicle battery production.

Thus, he offered Muslim countries to participate in the pursuit of realizing Golden Indonesia 2045.

The investment management design masterplan involves downstreaming in eight primary commodity sectors, with value reaching US$543 billion, he stated.

The direction of Indonesia's investment policies, under the leadership of President Joko Widodo, focuses on green energy and green industry-oriented downstreaming.

Indonesia is currently halting exports of several raw material commodities, such as nickel. This will also be done once again for tin and bauxite this year.

This raw material export halt became a form of commitment of the Indonesian government in supporting industrial downstreaming.

Before nickel exports were halted, Indonesia's revenue had only reached US$3.3 billion. However, once nickel exports were halted and its downstreaming was conducted, the country's revenue from nickel reached US$30 billion.

The IsDB Group Private Sector Forum is one of the main pillars in the IsDB Group Annual Meeting held to provide a unique network platform for renowned partners and stakeholders, specifically those in the private sector.

Moreover, IsDB also became a platform to promote investment and trade opportunities offered by its member countries.

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Translator: Ade irma Junida, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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