Minister Inaugurates Japanese Petrochemical Factory

TEMPO.CO, Cilegon - Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat inaugurates today a petrochemical factory belonging to Japanese company PT Nippon Shokubai Indonesia (PT NSI) in Cilegon. “The petrochemical industry is one of the prioritized industries in the national industry development,” the minister said in his opening speech on Wednesday, October 23, 2013.

Hidayat said the government was focusing on four measures in its industrial development. First is boosting the industrial structures, from upstream to downstream, accordingly to supplies and demand. Second is the downstreaming program to  optimize added values and foreign exchange revenues. Third is dominating domestic and international markets, particularly in the Asia-Pacific strategic regions. The last is striving for continued and equal development of the nation’s eastern regions.

Hidayat praised PT NSI, which he said to have been improving its performance in facing the markets’ dynamics by optimizing its added value through the utilization of ethylene by new technology. The minister hoped the NSI would continue to amplify the supply chain between producers and partners of the nation’s downstream industries.

The minister said the petrochemical industry had contributed significantly to the national economy by delivering additional foreign exchange and absorbing manpower. The government, he said, would consequently continue to preserve the present, conducive business climate by improving the national standard quality and issuing supportive policies on import duties and incentives. 

ERWAN HERMAWAN