The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, emphasized that Indonesia cannot lose to Thailand and Vietnam regarding the lithium battery ecosystem. He compared Indonesia to having more raw material supplies than the two countries. "We are very advanced, Thailand or Vietnam cannot win from us, because they don't have raw materials, (while) we have," Luhut said at the National Investment Coordination Meeting at the RItz-Carlton Hotel Jakarta, Wednesday (30/11). Luhut said that Indonesia sometimes still loses in terms of policy compared to that country. Therefore, he discussed with President Jokowi and Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. "We will talk about this later on Thursday, and also the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources to finalize it with the Minister of Investment so that it is complete. Investment realization must be focused on accelerating the issuance of permits so that the existing investment pipeline can be realized," he said.
Luhut ensured that the government had mapped out investment targets for the establishment of a lithium battery ecosystem. If the investment target is not realized, it will hamper the entire lithium battery ecosystem. "Earlier there was a world-famous car factory, we talked about this morning. They want to build their factory here, I have already reported the President, we will talk on Thursday," he added. Luhut predicts that Indonesia's exports of steel and raw materials for batteries to the world can reach USD 23.26 billion per dollar in 2022. He is optimistic that Indonesia's economy has never been as strong as it is today. "It's not just commodity prices, because our industry has developed, what we used to export has now entered this area (downstream)," said Luhut. If there is no export value for steel and raw materials for batteries, continued Luhut, Indonesia's economy could decline. This is because downstream production has not been carried out in line with declining commodity prices.
