We Export Raw Goods since the Colonial Era: President

TheIndonesia.co - President Joko Widodo emphasized economic transformation starts from downstream industries that no longer rely on exports of raw materials but rather on exports of semi-finished or finished goods.

"Since the VOC era 400 years ago, we sent raw materials, until now we still send raw. We have to stop! Stop! Stop! We can't get anything," said the President while attending the Opening of the 2022 Indonesia Military-Police Department Leadership Meeting in Jakarta East, Tuesday, March 1, 2022.

The President explained that since 400 years ago, Indonesia has relied on the sale of raw materials, both mining commodities, to agriculture and plantations. According to President Jokowi, the sale of raw materials does not generate added value for the State, including in job creation from industrialization, export duties, VAT to Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP).

Therefore, the Head of State ordered to stop nickel exports since 2020. Then this year, Indonesia also plans to stop bauxite exports. The President acknowledged that the proposed ban on bauxite exports has the potential to get sanctions from the European Union.

However, this step is needed so that Indonesia can get added value through processing raw materials, such as nickel, bauxite, and copper. "This is what is called economic transformation. In the past, nickel, even though we were still brought by the WTO, was sued by the European Union. If we don't dare to try like that, we don't dare to do like that, we will forever export only raw materials," said the President.

The economic transformation through industrialization, said the President, is to make economic growth would not only rely on the consumption sector, which contributed 56-58 percent.