Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Radjasa promised Wednesday that the government would provide incentives to boost the development of palm oil industry into the downstream level, to provide more employment.
"Our palm oil industry has been growing steadily in the upstream sector, making us now the world's number one palm oil producer," Hatta Rajasa said, while opening the 5th Indonesian Palm Oil Conference in Nusa Dua on Wednesday.
"But we need to deepen the growth of the industry into the downstream sector to provide more employment. With the development into the downstream, we would be a giant not only in the upstream sector but also in the downstream sector," he said.
Hatta identified three locations that would serve as industrial estates for the development of palm oil downstream industry. They are Kuala Enok in Indragiri Hilir regency in Riau, Maloi in Kutai Timur regency in East Kalimantan and Sei Mangke in Simalungun regency, North Sumatra.
"The incentives would be given to industries operating at designated economic zones. We cannot yet reveal what the incentives would be as we are still discussing them. We would first of all define general principles through a government regulation," Hatta said.
He added a number of foreign investors had expressed interests in investing in the palm oil downstream industry. They include potential investors from Japan.
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