Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs, Zulkifli Hasan, reveals that President Prabowo Subianto has asked him to lead a newly established task force dedicated to accelerating national self-sufficiency in food, water, and energy.

Zulkifli, also known as Zulhas, said that a presidential regulation (Perpres) to formalize the task force is currently being finalized, with the official appointment expected as early as next week.

“The revised presidential regulation might be completed next week,” he said in his remarks at the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit 2025 in Jakarta on Saturday, July 26, 2025.

As part of the task force’s early initiatives, Zulkifli outlined a plan to develop village-based solar panel installations in collaboration with the Red-and-White Cooperatives program, covering all 80,000 villages in the country.

“Each village will allocate around 1 to 1.5 hectares for solar panels. If implemented across all villages, that’s about 1.2 million hectares. This would make our electricity more efficient, as it will be based in villages, subdistricts, and regencies,” he cited.

In addition to renewable energy, Zulkifli also highlighted his focus on advancing waste-to-energy initiatives over the next two years to address Indonesia’s mounting waste problem. He acknowledged that the complexity of the permitting and development process has been a major hurdle, despite strong interest from investors and technology providers.

“The process of converting waste into energy is incredibly lengthy. Many are interested in doing it − it’s profitable − but the procedures are overly complicated,” he said.

To overcome the problem, Zulkifli said the task force plans to streamline the development of waste-to-energy facilities.

“Local governments will only need to provide land and handle waste collection. The government will negotiate with (State electricity company) PLN, and the financing will be supported through a joint subsidy from regional governments, the central government, and PLN. The state will handle it,” he concluded.