Prabowo Outlines Strategy for Indonesia's Position: World Trade Through Our Waters

JAKARTA — President Prabowo Subianto has outlined how strategically Indonesia is positioned in international trade. He said this position is one of Indonesia’s assets to become a large, globally recognised country. ‘We actually have a very strong asset to realise these aspirations and hopes. Our biographical position is very strategic. Dozens of per cent of world trade passes through our seas. Our land and water are very extensive,’ Prabowo said during the plenary meeting delivering the Macro-Economic Framework (KEM) and the Pokok-Pokok Kebijakan Fiskal (PPKF) for the 2027 RAPBN, at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Wednesday (20 May 2026).

‘We must uphold our sovereignty on our own seas. We have a demographic dividend supporting domestic demand, domestic consumption, and a large domestic market. Our market could be as big as Europe,’ he added. ‘Truly our natural resources are abundant. We have valuable commodities: our coal, our nickel, our copper, our palm oil, rare earth metals, and abundant marine wealth,’ he continued with optimism. The policy package would require that sales of natural resources such as palm oil and coal be conducted through state-owned enterprises designated by the government. ‘The issuance of this government regulation is a strategic step to strengthen governance of our natural resource commodity exports,’ Prabowo said. ‘The sale of all our natural resource outputs, starting with palm oil, coal, and iron alloy, will be required to be conducted through BUMN designated by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as the sole exporters,’ he added. The government expects the regulation to curb transfer pricing practices, while preventing export proceeds from flowing abroad. Prabowo also hopes that the commodity governance policy will boost state revenue. ‘We do not want our revenue to be the lowest because we are not brave enough to manage our own assets, our own nation’s assets,’ he concluded.