Post #183

⚠️Where Can Resource Nationalism Lead? [ #PolicyReview ] The answer: to success. For details let's look at the example of Indonesia. ⏩ Indonesia did something many resource countries only talk about: it made mining companies stop shipping the rock and start building plants. 🔸In the late 2000s Indonesia was a big supplier of raw nickel ore to Asia, mostly to China. There were only a couple of smelters in the country and most income left with the ships. 🔸 By 2024 it was supplying more than half of global primary nickel, exports of processed nickel reached tens o f billions of dollars, and whole industrial parks grew next to the mines. ⏩ This change did not come from a single decree. Indonesia adopted policies that created places to invest, tax holidays, power supply and a clear sign that the government would not reverse the core idea. So, what exactly did Indonesia do? 🔸 2009 – the key mining law (Law No. 4/2009) appeared. It said minerals had to be processed inside the country and it prepared the ground for export restrictions. It also pushed for more Indonesian participation in mining projects. 🔸 2013 – Indonesia and China agreed to develop the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Sulawesi, close to nickel deposits. This gave investors a real place with a port, power, land and one large anchor company (Tsingshan). From that moment investors knew processing could be done right at the source. 🔸 January 2014 – the export ban on unprocessed minerals, including nickel ore, was enforced. Companies that wanted to keep selling had to start building smelters. Processed nickel exports later jumped from about USD 6 billion in 2013 to around USD 30 billion in 2022. 🔸 2010s – 2020s – inside the new industrial parks (IMIP, later Weda Bay) the state added fiscal and non-fiscal support: tax holidays up to 20 years, exemptions on imported equipment, simpler permits, special labour rules. 🔸 2019 and after – the government fixed the next goal: electric vehicles and battery materials, with a presidential regulation in 2019 and follow-up plans. So the story did not stop at smelting, it moved to higher-value uses of nickel. In about a decade, Indonesia turned a complaint (“we export too much raw ore”) into a system that forces value to stay at home - eventually into an example to follow. Devils Below