Jakarta. Resource nationalism and Indonesia’s strategy to industrialize its mining commodities industries were high on the agenda during the Red and White Cabinet’s military-style retreat in Magelang.

President Prabowo Subianto gathered his cabinet members, including ministers, for a three-day briefing at the Magelang military academy starting on Friday. After having marching drills in the morning, the cabinet members had a briefing session later in the day.

Home Affairs Deputy Minister Bima Arya told reporters that Prabowo had briefed the cabinet on how they could carry on Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s policy of processing the country’s resources at home. Other topics included how Indonesia could be self-sufficient in food and energy.

“In short, the briefing was about how we could continue the domestic processing of our resources,” Bima Arya said.

“Prabowo also briefed us about food and energy self-sufficiency,” the deputy minister said.

According to Bima, Prabowo has urged his cabinet not to be influenced by other countries when it comes to national development.

Prabowo officially rose to power over the weekend. He is aiming to achieve 8 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth within the first three years of his presidency. 

Returning Investment Minister Rosan Roeslanirecently said Prabowo wanted to expand resource nationalism to other commodities beyond mining. As part of this resource nationalism, Indonesia stopped exporting unprocessed nickel ores in 2020.

The government reported that exports of nickel-related goods had soared from just $1.4 billion prior to the export restrictions to $33 billion. This prompted the government to consider imposing similar policies on other commodities.