Yuliot Tanjung, Deputy Minister of Investment and Deputy Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), announced that the government is preparing to provide duty-free import facilities for agricultural machinery to support Indonesia’s food and energy security programs. Currently, agricultural machinery imports are subject to standard procedures and import duties. The planned exemption is intended to support investment projects in the agricultural sector, such as the integrated sugarcane plantation project in Merauke, South Papua, which includes sugar, bioethanol, and power plant industries. This initiative aims to enhance Indonesia’s food self-sufficiency and support the development of local industries.
The Merauke sugarcane plantation project, which is currently in the third cluster of development, covers 2 million hectares. The planned duty exemption is expected to accelerate this project, which includes constructing five integrated factories with bioethanol production. The total investment for this project is USD 5.62 billion, or IDR 83.27 trillion, comprising IDR 29.2 trillion for mechanized plantations, IDR 53.8 trillion for the factories, IDR 120 billion for a human resources training center, and IDR 150 billion annually for research and innovation facilities. The development spans five clusters, with over 2 million hectares dedicated to achieving sugar and bioethanol self-sufficiency.
