Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto, at the Indonesia-Brazil Business Forum, highlighted Indonesia's need for more fishing vessels and his government's determination to boost Indonesia's economy by intensifying the downstreaming of its natural resources. "We are in need of 40 thousand fishing vessels, (with a capacity of) 150-300 GT," he remarked at the forum held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sunday (November 17), which was observed virtually from his secretariat's YouTube channel in Jakarta on Monday.

On that note, Prabowo expressed his keenness to invite foreign corporations to collaborate for the procurement of the requisite vessels in order to get involved in Indonesia's highly valuable fisheries sector.

Citing experts, he stated that Indonesia ranks second or third globally as the country with the largest fishery reserves.

In addition to highlighting Indonesia's need for fishing vessels, the president also made the most of the business forum to invite Brazilian business players to participate in the downstreaming of Indonesia's profound natural resources, including those in the fishery sector.

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In this regard, Prabowo underlined that Indonesia has been striving to industrialize natural resources by focusing on the downstreaming of 26 vital commodities, which include nickel, tin, copper, iron, steel, gold, silver, coal, asphalt, and crude oil.

His statement also refers to natural gas, coconut, rubber, pine sap, shrimp, tuna, skipjack, mackerel, crabs, seaweed, silica sand, cobalt, rare metals, cocoa, nutmeg, and tilapia fish.

"Indonesia has a strategic plan, which we will carry out on 26 commodities," he remarked.

The president expressed belief that downstreaming would propel the value of Indonesia's raw commodities through manufacturing processes.

"Hence, we are open to business," he affirmed.

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Translator: Andi F, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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