Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia said the government plans to increase share ownership in PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) while extending the company's Special Mining Business Permit (IUPK) contract until 2061.

“The purchase of the government's stake in PTFI is in line with the government's downstreaming policy, particularly in the electric vehicle ecosystem. By owning a larger stake, the government will not only benefit from the dividend, but can also support its downstreaming policy,” Bahlil said while addressing a public lecture at the Lambung Mangkurat University in Banjarbaru on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

He also said that with a majority stake in PTFI, the government can also more easily implement downstream policies, especially in the copper commodity.

Bahlil told the story of how the construction of the PTFI smelter in Gresik finally took place due to strong encouragement from the government.

"US$3 billion spent (to) build a smelter in Gresik. Now it is finished, in May we can already produce copper cathodes. From 3 million concentrates brought from Timika to Gresik, the smelter produces 400 thousand tons of copper cathode, 60 tons of gold," he said.

On the occasion, Bahlil also said that PTFI's contract extension was inseparable from the company's plan to produce copper wire. Copper wire is a copper derivative product that can produce 24 times the value.

Bahlil said that by producing copper wire, Indonesia will be closer to realizing the ecosystem of the electric vehicle industry from upstream to downstream in the country.

"If we have the copper, we can build a car factory. Copper wire is a wrapper for batteries, so we build the ecosystem all in Indonesia. So and so, we will become a respected producer country in the world," Bahlil said.

In regards with downstreaming, Bahlil suggested the importance for the country to have a clear policy direction. "What is the purpose of our nation and state? Creating prosperity. That is one of our goals. Through what? Managing natural resources as stipulated in Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution," he said.

Furthermore, Bahlil warned that Indonesia should not repeat the same mistake of only exploiting raw commodities.

"We were once an oil wealthy nation. We were once part of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries). But, we are now no longer included in OPEC, why? Because our oil consumption per day is 1.5 million barrels per day, while our production is only 625,000 barrels per day. We import 870 thousand barrels per day. We are an oil importer now," he said.

According to him, these all happened because of the wrong policy. That is why the government needs to change its policy direction tbrough downstreaming. The goal is to accelerate national economic growth and create quality jobs towards an equal and prosperous Indonesia.

"When we had an abundance of oil, we did not build its downstream industry. Do we now have enough refineries? We also had a golden age of timber with plantations in Kalimantan, in Papua, and in Maluku. They were all great. But we export all the logs," Bahlil said.