Bahlil Reveals Prabowo's Directive to Prioritise National Interests in Natural Resource Management
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia has revealed specific directives from President Prabowo regarding the management of natural resources. Prabowo emphasised the importance of safeguarding natural resources as strategic national assets while promoting the optimisation of state revenues from the mineral sector.
This was conveyed by Bahlil Lahadalia following a limited meeting at President Prabowo’s residence in Hambalang, Bogor, on Wednesday (25/3/2026). Prabowo stressed that national interests must be the top priority.
“The President has instructed me to pay attention to the national interest, which takes priority above all else, and to protect our natural resources. Our natural resources are national assets, and therefore the President also directed us to seek out sources of revenue in the mineral sector that have previously been unfair to the state,” explained Bahlil, as quoted by the Presidential Secretariat Bureau on Thursday (25/3/2026).
The government is now accelerating steps towards downstream processing and strengthening national energy resilience. Bahlil explained that the progress of the downstream processing programme is also one of the government’s priorities.
Of the 20 first-phase downstream processing projects, some have entered the groundbreaking stage, while the rest are scheduled to begin next month.
“Then we will add another 13 downstream processing items with a total investment of approximately Rp239 trillion, which we will discuss for finalisation,” said Bahlil.
In addition to downstream processing, Bahlil also addressed the development of alternative energy as part of efforts towards energy resilience and self-sufficiency. According to Bahlil, Prabowo has directed the optimisation of all domestic energy potentials, including ethanol and biodiesel based on crude palm oil (CPO), as well as accelerating the transition to new and renewable energy.
“The President has instructed us to optimise all the energy potentials we have, whether ethanol, biodiesel from CPO, including how we can promote the energy transition through new renewable energy,” added Bahlil.
On that occasion, Bahlil also reported the latest conditions of energy and mineral commodity prices, particularly coal and nickel. Bahlil affirmed that there have been no policy changes regarding the management of both commodities to date, while the government continues to monitor global market dynamics.
“If the prices remain stable, that’s good; we will consider measured relaxations in production planning. Everything is still within the bounds of coordination with the market, as well as supply and demand needs,” he said.
“The important thing is that we want the prices to remain good; we pray for good coal prices, good nickel prices, and then we will consider measured relaxations,” Bahlil continued.