Indonesia pitched domestic renewable and green energy investments to businesses and foreign representatives at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting running from Jan. 20 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland, saying the government had readied multiple incentives to make the potential deals worthwhile.
Febrian Alphyanto Ruddyard, the permanent representative to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and other Geneva-based international organizations, said on Tuesday that the country possessed large renewable energy potentials of up to an estimated 3,700 gigawatts (GW) from wind, hydropower, tidal, bioenergy and geothermal sources.
“For green investments, we have come up with a lot of incentives, including a tax holiday or allowance up to 25 percent,” Febrian, who is also deputy minister of national development planning, told a live streamed panel discussion held on the sidelines of the annual meeting in the Indonesia pavilion.
He also noted that the country, situated on the Ring of Fire, had one of the largest geothermal reserves in the world, pointing to the islands of Java and Sumatra as primary sources because they were home to more than 70 volcanoes.
In a statement on Tuesday, Investment and Downstream Minister Rosan Roeslani touted the country as the right destination for global investors, citing its adoption of sustainability principles.
“Davos gives us a great opportunity to promote potential investments in Indonesia. For that, we will maximize our time to meet with as many as potential investors that have the same vision as the country,” Rosan said, referring to the ongoing WEF meeting.
The minister also said Indonesia was willing to collaborate with all countries, so long as they were mutually beneficial.
Indonesia became an official member of the BRICS informal group of emerging economies on Jan. 6, and Rosan expressed his hope it would soon become a full member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
President Prabowo Subianto has highlighted Indonesia’s abundant natural resources in his policy on energy self-sufficiency as foundational to national sovereignty, claiming that the country was among the handful “that can achieve 100 percent renewable energy” in the next few years.
Speaking on Nov. 14 at the three-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit 2024 in Lima, the President said bioenergy played a key role in achieving energy independence.
At the Group of 20 Rio de Janeiro Summit in Brazil on Nov. 19, Prabowo vowed that his administration would produce over 75 GW of additional renewable energy and phase out all coal and other fossil fuel power plants within 15 years.
Renewable energy sources only contributed 13 percent to the national energy mix in 2023, far short of the 23 percent share the country is committed to achieving by the end of this year.
Businesses have blamed the government’s lack of action in resolving structural and financial barriers for the lagging domestic adoption of renewable energy.
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