The Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia gave a public lecture to Indonesian students who were studying in the UK. The event was held at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London's campus. In the meeting which was attended by undergraduate and postgraduate students, Bahlil emphasized the importance of downstreaming Indonesia's natural resources (SDA). Downstreaming is the main agenda of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). "The Ministry of Investment supports the transformation of the Indonesian economy from a primary sector industry oriented towards exporting raw goods to a value-added industry. With this transformation, Indonesia's participation in the global value chain will increase," Bahlil said in a written statement to Doctrine UK, Friday (28/10/ 2022). Bahlil gave an example of downstreaming for nickel commodities. Indonesia has the world's largest nickel reserves of 23.7%. Through downstream nickel, the selling value of commodities has increased by 68 times. An example of nickel downstreaming is the manufacture of battery cell derivative products as the main component of electric cars. Bahlil believes that downstream nickel will make Indonesia a center for the world's electric car production in the future. The ban on raw nickel exports has succeeded in forcing domestic industries to downstream. Exports of nickel derivative products over the past four years have increased sevenfold, from USD 3.3 billion or IDR 51 trillion (exchange rate of IDR 15,500) in 2017 to USD 20.9 billion or IDR 323.95 trillion in 2021. Bahlil delivered an electric battery investment plan in Indonesia that would involve world giants such as LG (USD 9.8 billion), CATL (USD 5.2 billion), Foxconn (USD 2.8 billion), and British Volt (USD 2.8 billion). USD 2 billion). On that occasion, Bahlil believed that the investment target was achieved even though the economy was overshadowed by a recession. His arrival to England invited investors to invest in Indonesia. "Although the UK economy is experiencing a slowdown, there are still many investment opportunities that we can explore," he said.
Previously, Bahlil had met the British Investment Minister, Lord Grimstone, on the sidelines of the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos in May 2022. The two countries plan to cooperate in three priority sectors, namely renewable energy, the downstream nickel mining industry, and the health industry. Bahlil also emphasized that foreign investment entering Indonesia must pay attention to environmental sustainability and involve the community in invested investment projects. This was conveyed in a public lecture organized by Doctoral Epistemic of Indonesia in the United Kingdom (Doctrine-UK), Indonesian Student Association (PPI) UK, PPI London, Indonesian Society Imperial College London and Indonesian Society London School of Economics and Political Science. "In parallel we must also increase the capacity of domestic human resources, research and innovation. In the UK, there are many doctoral researchers from Indonesia whose research is related to high value-added technology. These young people must be involved in strategic industrial development plans, " said Gatot Subroto, Head of Doctrine-UK which is an organization of Indonesian doctoral students throughout the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the Head of PPI UK Muhammad Affin Bahtiar said that the public lecture that Bahlil delivered provided both motivation and inspiration to students. "Dialogue like this is needed so that students are aware that there are many problems in Indonesia that we must think about together. We must absorb knowledge from the best campuses in the UK and then apply it to the development of Indonesia," said the University of Leeds student.
