TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo or Jokowi asked his cabinet ministers to accelerate the development of the coal derivative industry in order to increase the added value of coal commodities, curb imports of industrial raw materials, and create job opportunities.

"We must accelerate the development of the coal derivative industry," said the President when opening a limited meeting in the Bogor Presidential Palace on Friday, October 23, 2020.

Efforts to bolster the coal derivative industry include improving the quality of domestic coal, producing briquettes, liquefied coal, and coal gas.

"I am sure that by developing this coal derivative industry, it can highly increase the added value of commodities," Jokowi added.

Therefore, the ministers were expected to draft a road map for the optimization of domestic coal that adapts environmentally-friendly technology. “Set the strategy, determine the downstream products that we want to develop, so we can have a clear direction to go,” he said.

Jokowi underlined that the development of derivative industries or those included in industrial downstream activities must be considered as a big strategy that should be consistently applied.

“We need to change from an exporting country for raw materials including coal to an industrial country that is capable of processing raw materials into finished goods or semi-finished goods,” he said.

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ANTARA