Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s economic policies are synonymous with resource nationalism, and his persistence has convinced many investors to develop Indonesia’s mineral industries, with accumulated investments totaling dozens of billions of American dollars.

Jokowi was first elected in 2014 and became president for a second term in 2019. To Jokowi, investment is pivotal in growing the country’s economy and creating job opportunities for its sizable population. Indonesia’s outgoing leader also grew even more ambitious in his second term as he kept raising the bar for the national investment targets.

Jokowi has been banking on resource nationalism, among others, to attract both domestic and foreign investors. Jokowi wants to put an end to Indonesia’s exports of raw materials -- something that he oftentimes said could be traced back to the colonial era. 

In 2020, Indonesia stopped exporting unprocessed nickel ores in a move to capitalize on its abundant mineral reserves. The export ban would force companies to build their factories right here in the country. Nickel is a mainstay for the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, among others. Investors would have no choice, but to accept Jokowi’s offer if it wants to use Indonesian nickel to seize the EV market opportunity.

This will lead to the development of the domestic downstream industries, thus letting Indonesia export goods of higher value rather than selling unprocessed ores. The postponed ban on unprocessed copper export is set to come into effect later this year as Jokowi hopes to create a similar effect. 

Jokowi’s bold decision to proceed with the nickel ore export ban had ruffled the feathers of the European Union (EU). The EU even sued Indonesia at the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying that the ban could affect Europe’s stainless steel production. Jakarta lost the lawsuit but had filed an appeal. The unwavering resource nationalism amid international opposition appears to have bore fruit, particularly from a realized investment perspective.

As of September 2024, Indonesia’s mineral industries have attracted around Rp 1,245.8 trillion (around $80.3 billion) in combined investments since 2020, the government announced Tuesday. This is almost 22.2 percent of the total investments that Indonesia secured over the said period. 

Indonesia reported that Rp 759.8 trillion of those accumulated investments went to mineral smelters. About Rp 514.8 trillion were going to nickel smelting. Investors had also put nearly Rp 46.8 trillion into Indonesia’s copper smelting industries, and around Rp 194.2 trillion for bauxite smelters. The government also revealed that the investments in tin smelting had reached Rp 4 trillion.

Some Rp 197 trillion of the accumulated commodity sector-related investments went to pulp and paper industries. Jokowi’s resource nationalism resulted in Rp 130.2 trillion worth of investments in crude palm oil or oleochemicals industries. Indonesia’s petrochemical industry has also booked around Rp 139.6 trillion in investments since 2020. Jokowi managed to bring in around Rp 19.1 trillion worth of investments to Indonesia’s EV battery ecosystem over the past 4 years, data showed. 

After years of mineral-focused resource nationalism, preparations are underway to also develop the downstream industries in non-mining commodities.

“Speaking of this resource nationalism, we have to think of our comparative advantage. The next commodity that the government will push is actually seaweed,” Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday. 

“We can use seaweed for cosmetics and even food production. Our coastlines are rich in seaweed, but of course, we will have to build the ecosystem,” Rosan said.

The 10 years of Jokowi’s leadership have brought in Rp 9,117.4 trillion in overall investments. Rosan said that the country’s stability was what had charmed investors into investing in the archipelagic Indonesia. 

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