Jakarta. Indonesia is seeking to partner with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in its ambition to be a leading “green aluminum” producer.

The term green aluminum typically refers to the production process that uses renewable energy or recycled content. Bauxites -- of which Indonesia is quite abundant -- are a mainstay ingredient in aluminum production. As Indonesia seeks to process its natural resources at home as a means to boost its economic growth, the country sees an opportunity to supply green aluminum for global automakers. 

“In the domestic processing sector, we are hoping to nudge the UAE to invest in Indonesia, including in the aluminum sector. But not just aluminum, we want them to invest in green aluminum,” Pradana Indraputra, a special advisor at the Investment Ministry, said on the sidelines of a Dubai Chambers forum in Jakarta on Monday. 

"Hopefully, the green aluminum that Indonesia and the UAE jointly produce can lead the global market. Because take a look at the European automotive firms like BMW -- they need green aluminum for their production,” Pradana said. 

The Dubai Chambers has brought some company representatives to explore the opportunities of investing in Indonesia. A list of the business representatives shows that the conglomerate Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) is among the visiting companies. 

In 2022, EGA signed a deal with Indonesia’s state-owned aluminum smelting company Inalum. The deal sees both companies conducting a feasibility study on the use of EGA’s technology at the Indonesian firm’s Kuala Tanjung smelter in North Sumatra. This will help expand the smelter’s production capacity to around 400,000 tons annually.

“One of the Emirati investors [that are pursuing cooperation related to aluminum] is EGA. The company has been in talks with Inalum. They have also been talking with other private companies, as far as I know,” Pradana said. 

EGA claims to be the world's first company to commercially produce aluminum using solar power, according to its official website. Inalum’s Kuala Tanjung smelter relies on hydropower. 

Last year, Emirati investments made headlines after the launch of the 145-megawatt (Mwac) (192 megawatt-peak) Cirata floating solar plant in West Java. The Emirati investor behind Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar plant is the energy giant Masdar. 

While this is a huge investment, the UAE -- alongside other Middle Eastern countries -- are far from being Indonesia’s top foreign investors. The UAE was Indonesia’s 40th-largest foreign investor in the first quarter of 2024. Foreign direct investments (FDI) coming from the UAE only amounted to just $4.1 million.