President urges acceleration of downstreaming and optimisation of natural resources for self-reliance
Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto has instructed the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Bahlil Lahadalia, to safeguard natural resources as strategic assets while promoting their optimisation for national self-reliance, including by accelerating downstreaming.
“The President has ordered me to pay attention to the interests of the state, with priorities above all else, and to protect our natural resources. Our natural resources are national assets, and therefore the President has also ordered us to seek sources of revenue in the mineral sector that have not been fair to the state so far,” said Bahlil in an official statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday.
After attending a limited meeting at President Prabowo’s private residence in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, on Wednesday evening, Bahlil explained that the government’s future targets include ensuring optimal downstreaming, advancing the energy transition, and balancing energy commodity production with market needs.
The government is also striving to keep commodity prices competitive without sacrificing national interests.
With an integrated policy direction from industrial downstreaming, strengthening domestic energy, to sovereign natural resource governance (SDA), Bahlil stated that the government targets the creation of a stronger, more independent national economic structure with global competitiveness.
He assured that the development of the downstreaming programme is one of the government’s priorities. Of the 20 first-stage downstreaming projects, some have entered the groundbreaking phase, while the rest are scheduled to start next month.
“Then we will add another 13 downstreaming items with a total investment of around Rp239 trillion, which we will discuss for finalisation,” said Bahlil.
In addition to downstreaming, Bahlil also discussed the development of alternative energy as part of efforts towards energy resilience and self-sufficiency.
According to Bahlil, President 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 ordered the optimisation of all energy potentials we have, whether ethanol, biodiesel from CPO, including how we push the energy transition through new renewable energy that we can also do,” he said.
On that occasion, Bahlil also reported on the current state of energy and mineral commodity prices, particularly coal and nickel.
Bahlil emphasised that there has been no policy change regarding the management of both commodities so far, while the government continues to monitor global market dynamics.
“If the prices remain stable, that’s good; we will see how to make measured relaxations to production planning. So, everything is still within the bounds of coordination with the market, then supply and demand needs. 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 see how to carry out measured relaxations,” Bahlil explained.