Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita targets the national petrochemical industry to become king in the ASEAN region. Moreover, the petrochemical industry is a strategic industry at the upstream level which is the basic capital and the main prerequisite for developing downstream industries such as plastics, fiber cloth, textiles, packaging, electronics, automotive, medicine, and other important industries. "The Ministry of Industry targets the petrochemical industry in Indonesia to be able to become number one in ASEAN. Therefore, we continue to encourage investment in the chemical industry, especially to strengthen commodities in the upstream chemical sector and be able to substitute petrochemical products that are still widely imported such as Ethylene, Propylene, BTX, Polyethylene. (PE), and Polypropylene (PP)," Agus said in a written statement, Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
He conveyed that currently the national industrial capacity for these products reaches 7.1 million tons per year. However, imports of chemical products are also still very significant, reaching 4.6 million tons in 2020. This indicates the need for efforts to increase production capacity to meet domestic demand.
According to him, the investment in the PT Asahimas Chemical Phase-7 project in Cilegon, which was inaugurated on April 1, 2022, shows that the potential for the development of the intermediate petrochemical industry is very large. With the addition of a PVC product capacity of 200 thousand tons per year, the total national PVC capacity will be 1.06 million tons per year and make Indonesia the largest PVC producer in ASEAN.
"This additional production capacity contributes to maintaining domestic supply in anticipation of increasing domestic PVC demand, as well as increasing the potential of the export market," he said.
Until this 7th expansion, PT Asahimas Indonesia is able to absorb up to 1,250 workers. Therefore, the PT Asahimas Chemical factory expansion project needs to be appreciated.
Furthermore, Agus expressed hope that this new factory could be an example for other chemical industry investments that the development of the chemical industry in Indonesia still has great potential. His party continues to make efforts to create a conducive industrial business climate, so that investment in Indonesia can continue to grow.
"We understand the importance of facilitating a more competitive chemical industry investment climate. The company told us there are obstacles related to coal prices and unsupported road infrastructure, especially from factories to toll roads. We will do our best to help PT Asahimas Chemical and other companies. other industrial companies overcome these industrial barriers," he said.
Other strategic efforts that have been carried out by the Ministry of Industry include providing natural gas price incentives of USD6 per MMBTU, carrying out import control efforts and securing the domestic market, optimizing the utilization of the domestic market and export market.
"Then there is the Domestic Production Improvement Program (P3DN), as well as the provision of fiscal incentives such as Tax Allowance, Tax Holiday, Super Deduction Tax for R&D and Vocational Studies, as well as the application of SNI and SKKNI," concluded Agus.
