goodmorningpapua.com – The Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia wants to encourage investment in order to build industry in Papua and West Papua.
He wants the industry to be built later is an industry with raw materials available around Papua so that the benefits and impacts can be fully felt by the local community.
“So don’t invest in Papua, if it only takes the raw goods and process them elsewhere. If this is used, then until the chickens grow teeth, Papua will never be equal to other regions because of the added value is not in Papua,” he said at a meeting of special committee of the Autonomy Special (Otsus) for Papua being monitored in Jakarta, Thursday (10/6/2021).
Bahlil said that his party had designed a number of strategies to encourage industry in Papua. The industries to be built are adapted to the available natural resources ranging from mining materials, wood, plantations to fishery products.
“We at the Ministry of Investment are designing, we are directing now to build industries that are closer to raw materials. Like Freeport, I have communicated with MIND ID, with the Minister of SOEs, for one Freeport smelter to be built in Papua,” he said.
In addition to the construction of a smelter, the former Chairperson of Hipmi also encouraged the construction of a fertilizer factory in Bintuni, by utilizing gas supplies from Bintuni Bay, West Papua.
“We have gas in Bintuni, now with the Ministry of SOEs, we are also pushing to build a fertilizer factory there, until we build alumina, methanol, too,” he said.
Not only in the fields of energy and mining, Bahlil said his party also encourages the establishment of the wood processing and the fisheries industries in Papua. In his opinion, Papua produces a lot of wood, but other regions enjoy the industrial products.
“I agree with the Regional Regulation of the Papua Province Government which prohibits for bringing in local wood from Papua because of we are an area producing a lot of wood but few downstream industries. Those who get downstream industries are other regions, so there must be a simultaneous policy to be able to build industries in other areas over there,” he said.
Bahlil also asked that the management of natural resources in Papua, particularly through investment, should not ignore the traditional rights of the local community.
“I think that the management of Papua’s natural resources, associated with investment, cannot ignore the rights existing in the region, including customary rights,” he said.
Bahlil said that the rights of the community cannot be separated in the investment licensing policies contexts, which ultimately affect the flow of capital into the area.
He added that the involvement of indigenous peoples needs to be done so that no parties hinder the entry of investment. In fact, investment is needed to be able to help in driving the local economy.
“Indigenous rights must also be discussed so that investment does not continue to be blocked. These are cross people because of they have hereditary rights, but they are not invited for discussing about that,” he said.