Indonesia's Pertamina, Electrum sign battery packs development deal

  Indonesia's state energy company Pertamina said late on Monday it plans to develop battery
  packs for electric motorcycles with Electrum, a firm that aims to put millions of electric
  two-wheelers on the roads of the Southeast Asian country. 

  The agreement was signed during a groundbreaking ceremony for Electrum's electric scooter
  plant on Friday, where the company, which is a joint venture between coal miner TBS Energi
  Utama and giant tech firm GoTo, or Gojek Tokopedia, aims to produce 250,000 units of electric
  scooters per year. 

  The planned battery packing facility run by Pertamina's renewables unit and Electrum could
  cover a capacity of about 300 megawatts, Pertamina official Dicky Septriadi said. 

  Indonesia has the world's largest reserves of nickel - a key element in electric vehicle (EV)
  batteries - and is keen to utilize the mineral to create a full supply chain for the industry. 

  Source: Reuters 

  Indonesia’s FDI to Hit 1.4 Pct of GDP in 2025: World Bank

  Indonesia's foreign direct investment (FDI) could go up to 1.4 percent of its gross domestic
  product, or GDP, in 2025, according to a recent report by the World Bank. 

  The World Bank attributed this uptick to the job creation law and the government's industrial
  downstreaming strategy of processing raw minerals at home for greater added value.  

  "FDI is projected to gradually pick up as the Omnibus Law on Job Creation and the Indonesian
  government's agenda to develop the downstream mining and mineral industries are implemented,
  reaching 1.4 percent of GDP in 2025," the World Bank's study reads. 

  Indonesia's net FDI is projected to grow to 1.3 percent of the country's GDP this year from 1.1
  percent in 2022. The World Bank has set the same 1.3-percent forecast for 2024. 

  According to the multinational lender, an open market is a recipe for Indonesia to reach high-
  income status by its centenary in 2045. Global experience has shown that countries that became
  high-income economies did so through investments generated by open markets. 

  The World Bank stated Indonesia has had "historically restricted market competition" through
  regulation, thus preventing productive firms and industries from growing. The job creation omnibus
  law is expected to remove some of these constraints, among others, by opening up previously
  restricted sectors for investors.  

  "There is a need to enhance competition to spur Indonesia's productivity growth. The job
  creation omnibus law liberalized private investments in the Indonesian economy," Satu
  Kahkonen, the World Bank country director for Indonesia and Timor Leste, said in Jakarta on
  Monday. 

  "They had a very large number of sectors that were closed or restricted for private investment.
  The law package released those restrictions in one go," Kahkonen said. 

  From now on, Indonesia needs to identify the specific constraints within policy areas or sectors
  that prohibit market contestability. 

  "Indonesia [would have to] remove the remaining restrictions to competition that are embedded in
  business regulations, procurement rules, international trade policies, labor market regulations,
  and financial sector rules," Kahkonen said. 

  The World Bank called Indonesia's financial sector omnibus law "a major reform step". This
  package of regulations is set to improve access to finance for micro, small, and medium
  enterprises (MSMEs), among others, by allowing state-owned banks to write off MSMEs' non-
  performing loans.  

  "Having access to financing is necessary for the private sector to flourish and invest. [...] Let's get
  both [of the omnibus laws] implemented so Indonesia can get the full benefits of those reforms,"
  Kahkonen added. 

  Source: The Jakarta Globe 

  Indonesia records decline in deforestation in 2021--2022 

  The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has registered a decline in deforested area in
  Indonesia in 2021–2022. 
 

  Acting Director General of Forestry Planning and Environmental Management at the Ministry,
  Ruandha A. Sugardiman, said that during the period, the area under deforested land was 104
  thousand hectares. 

 
  At a media briefing in Jakarta on Monday, he informed that the figure was obtained based on the
  gross deforestation area of 119.4 thousand hectares minus the reforestation area of 15.4
  thousand hectares. 

 
  According to him, the figure for deforestation in 2021–2022 was 8.4 percent lower compared to
  the figure for 2020–2021. 

 
  He further said that in 2020–2021, the deforested area reached 113.5 thousand hectares. The
  figure was obtained based on a gross deforestation area of 139.1 thousand hectares minus the
  reforestation area of 25.6 thousand hectares. 

 
  "The decline in Indonesian forests is relatively low and tends to be stable," he observed. 

 
  Based on the gross deforestation data from 2021–2022, deforestation mainly occurred in
  secondary forests. 

 
  Deforestation occurred in an area of 106.4 thousand hectares or 89.1 percent of the secondary
  forest area, of which 70.9 percent or 75.4 thousand hectares were inside forest areas. 

 
  Regarding the conditions of land and tree cover in Indonesia, he noted changes in forest cover
  from time to time. 

 
  According to him, changes in land and forest cover are caused by, among other things, the
  conversion of land for non-forestry sector development, logging, and forest fires, as well as
  forest rehabilitation activities. 

 
  "To find out the existence and extent of land cover, both forested and non-forested lands, we
  conduct forest and deforestation monitoring every year," he informed. 

 
  The monitoring is carried out over 187 million hectares of land area in Indonesia, both inside
  forest areas and outside them. 

 
  The result of the monitoring in 2022 showed that there were 96 million hectares of forested land,
  accounting for 51.2 percent of Indonesia's total land area. 

 
  The monitoring result also showed that 88.3 million hectares or 92 percent of forested land is
  located inside the forest area. 

 
  The Ministry's Director of Inventory and Monitoring of Forest Resources, Belinda A. Margono,
  said the results of forest and deforestation monitoring in Indonesia can be viewed and
  downloaded from the website http://sigap.menlhk.go.id and https://nfms.menlhk.go.id/. 

  Source: AntaraNews