Industrialisation Beyond Java to Be Stepped Up as Government Seeks to Create Jobs
The government is encouraging the development of new economic growth centres outside Java through the industrialisation of transmigration areas. The strategy is intended to expand employment opportunities, increase the value added to natural resources and strengthen economic activity in the regions.
Transmigration Minister M. Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara outlined the strategy during a public lecture entitled ‘Industrialisation Beyond Java: Transmigration and Indonesia’s New Growth Centres’ at the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD), Peking University, in Beijing on Monday (12 October 2026). Indonesia also offered to collaborate with Peking University on research to support the development of transmigration areas.
Iftitah said production centres and economic activity needed to be expanded so that investment and job creation were not concentrated solely in Java. “The next phase of transmigration must help drive industrialisation beyond Java. This is about where Indonesia builds its productive capacity, where good jobs are created, and whether people across our archipelago can share in the country’s growth,” Iftitah said, according to a statement issued on Tuesday (13 October 2026).
He said Indonesia’s abundant natural resources needed to be processed into higher-value products so that communities in producing areas could benefit economically. For that reason, developing transmigration areas required more than providing housing and land: it also called for industry, investment, technology, infrastructure, market access and a skilled workforce.
“An area must have a greater role than simply supplying raw materials. It must also be able to generate added value,” he stressed.
Commodities such as coconuts, coffee, cocoa, mangoes, snake fruit and durians are seen as having potential to be turned into processed products with greater economic value. Developing industries based on local commodities is expected to create jobs, widen markets for agricultural produce and encourage the growth of supporting businesses and regional supply chains.
Iftitah cited the sugar industry in the Melolo transmigration area of East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara, which employs about 3,500 permanent workers. The workforce rises to 6,000 during the harvest season.
Another example is the coconut-processing industry in North Halmahera, North Maluku. Ministry of Transmigration data from June 2026 show that the industry employs more than 4,000 people, around 85 per cent of whom are local residents. Its presence has also expanded the market for coconut farmers and increased the economic value of their produce.