JAKARTA – Indonesia has launched the construction of an industrial estate in North Kalimantan today.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Indonesia President Joko Widodo was reported by Channel News Asia as saying that the estate will span 30,000ha and include investments from China and the United Arab Emirates.
The estate aims to use hydropower for plants producing semiconductors, lithium ion batteries, solar panels, and aluminium products, the media outlet reported.
“Indonesia’s economic transformation starts here, where we will manage our natural resources from the upstream to downstream to create massive job availability,” he said.
Jokowi said Indonesia was keen to establish manufacturing industries to take advantage of Indonesia’s rich natural resources such as nickel, bauxite, and copper to move up the value chain, not just for the export of raw materials.
The government says the estate will be green, as it will use energy from a planned hydropower project.
Up to US$12 billion (RM50.5 billion) of investment will be needed for the hydropower project alone and nearly US$1 billion for a port, Senior Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said at the same event.
Luhut said Indonesia also plans for an electric vehicle battery plant to be built at the North Kalimantan project.
The project is being led by PT Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia (Kipi), which controls the land to be used for the estate, Luhut said. Kipi is led by coal tycoon Garibaldi Thohir.
Earlier this year, Luhut said Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group and China’s Tsingshan Holding Group could invest billions of dollars at the industrial park.
Indonesia has set a 2024 deadline to move its capital to the island of Borneo in East Kalimantan, where it plans to carve out a new province-level city. – The Vibes, December 21, 2021
