Jakarta. Indonesia has just secured $17.4 billion worth of investment commitments for its sustainability-related programs, some of which were expected to help put the sovereign fund Danantara’s waste-to-energy plan into motion.

The Indonesian government and business lobby Kadin had put together a two-day forum zeroing in on how the country could safeguard the planet through green investments. The 2025 Indonesia International Sustainability Forum ended on a high note, business-wise. A string of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) got signed, and some investors had pledged to put their money into Indonesia’s sustainability sectors.

“We have successfully mobilized 18 MoUs, investment commitments, and letters of intent valued at around Rp 278.33 trillion or $17.4 billion,” Nurul Ichwan, a senior official at the Investment Ministry, said as he wrapped up the forum on Saturday evening.

The documents were spread over various sectors, one touching on the blue economy and what could enable Indonesia to sustainably develop seaweed downstream industries to create added value to the marine commodity. Signing this seaweed MoU was the business group APINDO, multinational bank Standard Chartered, as well as non-profits Conservation International and Konservasi Indonesia. Saudi energy firm ACWA Power also partnered with state fertilizer maker Pupuk Indonesia on industrial decarbonization. Nurul also revealed that investors had shown a huge appetite for the nationwide waste-to-energy program that Danantara had been working on over the past few weeks. 

“The $17.4 billion investment commitment confirms the confidence of global partners in Indonesia's green transition. We are now moving decisively into the critical execution phase," Nurul said.

Indonesia wants to tackle its mounting waste crisis by turning its problem into electricity. A day earlier, Rosan had told reporters at the same forum that Indonesia would need Rp 90 trillion ($5.4 billion) to build waste-to-energy facilities in 33 cities.

The government will also pick 10 cities to prioritize in the rollout, Jakarta included, as Rosan said that the bustling city had sufficient feedstock of waste. He claimed that 192 companies had “shown interest”, some of whom are publicly listed domestic firms.

"We have companies coming from China, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and even Malaysia,” Rosan said, while admitting that he was “surprised” by the number of international investors.

Danantara is set to tender the waste-to-energy projects in priority cities early next month. Rosan had said in the past that Danantara’s “Patriot Bonds” would also finance the projects. Danantara is selling these bonds at below-market yields directly to Indonesia’s wealthiest tycoons to raise up to Rp 50 trillion (around $3 billion). Rosan claimed that the bonds had already been “fully subscribed”.

State utility firm PLN will buy the electricity generated by these facilities.