Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto received a visit from the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure of the United Arab Emirates Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei at the Ali Wardhana Building, Jakarta, on Friday, January 31th, 2025. Minister Suhail's arrival aims to discuss the potential for strategic cooperation in the energy sector between the two countries. Minister Suhail said that Indonesia is a strategic partner country for the United Arab Emirates. With the agreement on economic cooperation within the framework of the Indonesia-United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-UAE CEPA), Minister Suhail emphasized that there are many sectors that can be collaborated on by the two countries, one of which is related to the development of the energy sector.
Minister Suhail also proposed that the two countries have a superior program (champion) in the energy sector such as the development of power plants with a large capacity of up to 100 gigawatts (GW) and the construction of data centers. Responding to this, Coordinating Minister Airlangga expressed his agreement that the implementation of the I-UAE CEPA Agreement be accelerated. "We must accelerate the implementation of our cooperation and start exploring strategic sectors, one of which is the Andaman Sea Project and the construction of a data center on Batam Island or Bintan," said Airlangga. Previously, there was cooperation between the two countries, namely the development of a Solar Power Plant (PLTS) in Cirata, West Java Province, a collaboration between PLN and Masdar, which is a United Arab Emirates company engaged in clean energy. Currently, 145MWp of energy has been produced by the Cirata PLTS. Minister Suhail further explained his internal plan to prepare a comprehensive cooperation proposal for the development of bauxite and gas downstreaming. The development of these commodities is important for the industry, especially aluminum and the construction of large-capacity power plants.
