In front of business and economic leaders of APEC members, on Thursday (16/11), President Joko Widodo hoped that they would invest in a number of Indonesia’s priority sectors, including the Indonesian Capital City (IKN).
“I hope that you can take advantage of this opportunity more aggressively and more quickly,” said Jokowi at the 2023 APEC CEO Summit.
Jokowi mentioned this giant infrastructure project several times during his visit to San Francisco to attend the 2023 APEC Summit.
In his public lecture at Stanford University, Jokowi talked about his legacy and ambitions for sustainable development in Indonesia, especially in developing IKN. He dreams of making the new capital city built in North Penajam Paser Regency, East Kalimantan a smart, green city full of technology.
Meanwhile, in a public lecture at Georgetown University, the 7th president of the Republic of Indonesia said that he hoped that IKN would be inhabitable in 2024.
Jokowi said that investment opportunities in IKN are still wide open in various sectors, namely infrastructure, transportation, technology, education, energy, finance, tourism, health and housing.
When asked by journalists to what extent foreign investment had entered the IKN project, Jokowi said, “Until now there hasn’t been any, but I am sure that after domestic investors move in more and more every month, investors from abroad (the country) will soon enter. We’ll see, it will definitely come in.”
Apart from developing IKN, Jokowi also invited investors to invest in the industrial downstream sector. He said that Indonesia is building an integrated electric vehicle ecosystem, with a production target of 600,000 electric cars by 2030. This cannot be separated from Indonesia’s position as the largest producer and owner of nickel reserves in the world.
Currently, Indonesia is in the initial stages of exploring the possibility of creating a Limited Free Trade Agreement with the United States for nickel cooperation in the hope of accessing the American market and reaping incentives from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Another sector that is a priority is the energy transition. Jokowi hopes that investment will flow to develop a 30,000 hectare green industrial park which he said is currently under construction.
“Investment is needed, knowledge is needed, the latest technology is needed to produce added value, while simultaneously improving the welfare of society in a sustainable manner,” said Jokowi in front of the CEOs.
The investment priority in the energy transition sector is in line with Indonesia’s sustainability targets at this year’s APEC Summit, as explained by Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartanto to VOA, Thursday (16/11), when asked about Indonesia’s targets at the Asia Pacific economic meeting.
“Indonesia itself is accelerating the Paris Agreement based on its own strength,” he said, referring to the climate agreement signed by 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015.
“Indonesia is also one (member) of JETP along with Vietnam,” he added. JETP, or Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership, is a funding mechanism to decarbonize developing countries that depend on coal as an energy source, which was just launched at the 2022 G20 Summit.
UGM environmental economist Poppy Ismalina hopes that Indonesia will show a strong commitment to these efforts at the APEC Summit. “There needs to be a significant contribution from developed countries in financing projects in developing countries, including Indonesia, especially the energy transition.”
Jokowi himself said that IKN would be a city based on forests and nature, with 70% green areas and 80% of public transportation based on green energy. (rd/rs)
