These are the three commodities that must be exported through a Special Export State-Owned Enterprise

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - President Prabowo Subianto has officially formed a Special Export State-Owned Enterprise to govern three commodities. The commodities required to export through this body are coal, palm oil and ferro alloys.

Prabowo said that through this Special Export State-Owned Enterprise, the sale of all natural resource outputs, starting with palm oil, coal and ferro alloys, must be conducted through a BUMN designated by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia as the sole exporter.

“In other words, the proceeds from each export sale will be channelled by the government-designated BUMN to the business operators managing those activities. This can be described as marketing, marketing facility,” Prabowo said in the plenary session of the DPR RI, on Wednesday (20 May 2026).

He further stressed that the main objective of this policy is to strengthen supervision and monitoring and to root out under-invoicing, transfer pricing, and the flight of export proceeds.

In Prabowo’s note, Indonesia is the third-largest exporter of these commodities. For example, in palm oil exports, Indonesia is a major exporter with foreign exchange earnings reaching US$23 billion or Rp391 trillion in 2025.

Then coal with foreign exchange earnings surpassing US$30 billion or Rp510 trillion in 2025. And ferro alloys with export earnings reaching US$16 billion or Rp272 trillion in 2025.

‘These three strategic commodities generate foreign exchange of US$65 billion or Rp1,100 trillion per year,’ Prabowo asserted.

However, Prabowo notes Indonesia, as a G20 member, has the lowest ratio of government expenditure to GDP among G20 countries. “Our revenue ratio is the lowest among G20 countries from the latest IMF data. We can see Mexico’s revenue ratio at 25% of GDP, India 20% of GDP, Philippines 21%, Cambodia 15%, Indonesia 11-12% of GDP,” he said.

(ven)