Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment was in Perth, Australia earlier this week attending an Australia-Indonesia roundtable meeting hosted by the Business Council and Indonesian Consulate General in Perth, which saw attendees come from Australia’s lithium business owners.
At the meeting the Minister said that “in every opportunity, both domestic and overseas, I always say that Indonesia today is not the Indonesia decades ago. We’re on our way to making a major transformation,” according to reporting from Tempo.
The Minister said on his Instagram feed that many countries undervalue Indonesia however, there are many that also appreciate the major changes implemented as he claims the country has managed to survive difficult times amid global economic turmoil.
“I told them that the key factor for the resilience of the Indonesian economy is the development of the mineral downstream industry which has high added value. As our focus is to accelerate global commitments in the energy transition,” said Luhut.
Despite being a country rich in nickel, Luhut explained, it has not been able to make Indonesia the world’s leader in electric vehicle batteries as Indonesia lacks lithium, which incidentally is the main ingredient for the development of the electric vehicle (EV) battery industry, say Tempo.
“In front of lithium entrepreneurs, I would like to say that Australia is the best candidate and our potential partner to develop the EV battery industry. Because half of the world’s lithium is here,” Luhut said.
Indonesia, he said, is aware that the dream of becoming the leader of the world’s electric vehicle batteries would not be an easy task. So it is necessary to establish cooperation with partners who trust and support each other, provide input in realizing better regulations and have more open investment.
Source: Tempo, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment RI
Gallery Foto: Menko Luhut: Perlu Kolaborasi untuk Ciptakan Ekosistem Kendaraan Listrik
