Minister Bahlil: 18 Downstream Projects Create Thousands Of Job Opportunities

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Bahlil Lahadalia, announced 18 downstream projects that have the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs to promote equitable national economic growth.

"These (downstream projects) will generate quality jobs with fair wages," stated Bahlil, who also serves as the Chairman of the National Downstream Acceleration and Energy Resilience Task Force, during an event titled "Submission of Pre-Feasibility Study Documents for Priority Downstream and National Energy Resilience Projects" at the ESDM Ministry Office in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Bahlil emphasized that the wages to be received will no longer be the regional minimum wage (UMR).

He considers this to be an instrument for penetration aimed at providing justice in regional economic growth.

The Downstream Task Force, Bahlil continued, is always ready to coordinate with Danantara, discussing further the determination of financing schemes, business capital allocation, project implementation, site selection, and resolving project obstacles, which include land permits and social environmental mitigation.

Meanwhile, Danantara's CEO, Rosan Roeslani, stated that investment contributions in the downstream sector have increased significantly.

"Approximately from the investments entering the second batch, or in one semester, the contribution from over Rp950 trillion amounts to about 30 percent, based on downstream activities," he remarked.

Rosan also mentioned that during the four months since Danantara was launched, it has secured funding through partnerships with other Sovereign Wealth Funds amounting to 7 billion US dollars.

"Of the 7 billion US dollars, 4 billion US dollars is from Qatar, followed by 2 million US dollars from CIC (China Investment Corporation), and also from RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund). We are currently in discussions with other Sovereign Wealth Funds to collaborate on investments, particularly in Indonesia," Rosan stated.

According to the preliminary study by the National Energy Resilience and Downstream Task Force, out of 18 projects, the downstream mineral and coal projects are the largest, comprising 8 projects valued at 20.1 billion US dollars and the potential to absorb 104,974 workers.

Projects in the agriculture and marine sectors are expected to absorb 23,950 and 67,100 workers, respectively.

Meanwhile, the energy transition project is valued at 2.5 billion US dollars and is projected to employ 29,652 workers.

In the energy resilience sector, the investment value reaches 14.5 billion US dollars with the potential to absorb 50,960 workers.

Overall, these 18 projects have the potential to create 276,636 direct and indirect jobs.

Tag: Bahlil Lahadalia ESDM Regional Minimum Wage