Prabowo Says Downstreaming is Key to Creating Quality Jobs

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - President Prabowo Subianto has stressed that industrial downstreaming policies are the main key to creating quality jobs in Indonesia.

During his leadership, Prabowo stated that the national economic transformation through intensified industrialisation is one of the current government’s focuses.

“This is precisely what I am doing. That’s why when I ran for president, I no longer talked about nation-building; I talked about nation transformation,” Prabowo said during a discussion with journalists and experts, quoted from a release by the Indonesian Communication Agency (Bakom) on Thursday (19/3/2026).

Therefore, the Head of State considers downstreaming policies to be important.

“I want downstreaming. That’s the only way. We must not export raw materials anymore. We have to process those raw materials into derivative industrial products with high value,” he explained.

Prabowo believes that downstreaming will open up quality job opportunities, especially for the younger generation in the industrial and technological sectors.

“We have bauxite. Bauxite for alumina is processed into aluminium. Aluminium becomes cars, but we don’t process bauxite. Japan doesn’t have bauxite, but it makes the best cars. Right? This is what we have to do,” he said.

Furthermore, Prabowo revealed an industrial development strategy through the industrial tree concept.

“We have to build hundreds of factories. That’s what we call the industrial tree. We have already mapped it out. We have a plan actually. Industrial tree for all important commodities that we have,” Prabowo explained.

Prabowo then mentioned coconuts as one of the major untapped potentials.

“Coconuts alone are considered a miracle crop. Virgin coconut oil is considered anti-cancer, but we only have one or two coconut factories. So far, we export whole coconuts,” he revealed.

Not only that, Prabowo also highlighted the paradox in flagship commodities like coffee and cocoa.

He was surprised that Indonesia, as the producer of the best coffee beans and cocoa, still has to import processed chocolate and coffee products.

“We have the best coffee, best chocolate, but we import Starbucks, Nestle, Nescafe. We have the best chocolate, but we import KitKat, we eat Cadbury. Right? This is what we have to do,” he continued.

“So this is precisely the answer: industrialisation,” Prabowo asserted firmly.