Jakarta (ANTARA) – There should be no delays in downstream projects, including the processing of coal into dimethyl ether (DME) in Muara Enim District, South Sumatra, where a plant is being constructed for the purpose, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has said.
“Earlier, I talked to all stakeholders to ensure that the project would be completed in 30 months, according to the plan. Once we finish this project, we will establish a new one elsewhere,” he said while attending the groundbreaking event for the coal downstream project on Monday.
The project is a collaboration between state-owned enterprise (SOE) subsidiary PT Bukit Asam, oil and gas SOE PT Pertamina, and an American investor, he noted.
During the groundbreaking, the President also reviewed cooking fire generated by DME and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
Indonesia’s spending on LPG imports has reached Rp80 trillion, he said.
“The price is very high, so we have to provide a subsidy for it of around Rp60 trillion–Rp70 trillion. Thus, do we want to continue the imports? If we continue importing, it will be the other country which gains the benefit and gets to open new job opportunities,” he pointed out.
Hence, continuing imports will harm Indonesia’s economic sector since there will be no new jobs for the nation’s people, he said. In fact, reducing LPG imports will create 11 thousand–12 thousand jobs, Jokowi noted.
Meanwhile, the indirect result of the attempt will create twice or thrice as many job opportunities, he said.
In addition, the government will be able to improve the national trade balance, he added.
Meanwhile, Investment Minister and Head of the Investment Coordinating Board Bahlil Lahadalia said that Indonesia imports around six to seven million metric tons of LPG per year.
“We estimate that for every one million ton of the produced DME, we can make efficiency of around Rp6 trillion–Rp7 trillion. Thus, there is no reason to not support the downstream program to produce import substitution,” he stressed.
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