Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday said that Indonesia had already planned out its so-called downstream policy, in which the country pushes domestic processing of its natural resources for higher added value. However, it all comes down to making sure that everything is going according to plan.

Export restrictions on raw commodities are at the heart of this policy. If other economies wish to get their hands on the said commodities, they can either import the processed goods from Indonesia or build a plant in the country. Indonesia has banned exports of unprocessed nickel ores in a move to develop the domestic industry. It enforced such restrictions on bauxite earlier this year.

“We already have a clear path ahead on what we should do. … And that includes building our downstream sectors. A roadmap on how we should proceed with this plan for mineral resources is already in place. After we [stop exports] of [raw] nickel ores, we will move to [restricting] copper, bauxite, and tin ore [exports],” Jokowi said at the 2023 BNI Investor Daily Summit at Hutan Kota by Plataran in Jakarta.

“We will then [replicate] this to other sectors, including farming, agriculture, and marine. Everything. So the roadmap is clear, but the key for this plan to go on does not lie in the macro policies or the strategies. What is more important is how we make sure that everything is going according to plan,” Jokowi said.

The Investment Ministry earlier this year unveiled a roadmap that showed how Indonesia planned to push for domestic processing across 21 commodities. Some of these commodities include palm oil and seaweed. 

With export restrictions in place, Indonesia is opening its doors for investors to build the industries in the country. The president aims to garner investments worth Rp 1,400 trillion in 2023. Government data shows that Indonesia has attracted Rp 1,053.1 trillion in investment both from home and abroad in the first 9 months of 2023. This means that Indonesia has reached 75.2 percent of the investment target that Jokowi has set for this year. 

The downstream plan has ruffled the feathers of the European Union (EU), which later filed a lawsuit as it feared the plan could take a toll on its stainless steel production. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in June also told Indonesia to consider phasing out the export restrictions, and not extending the restrictions to other commodities.

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