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Indonesia
This Week in AsiaEconomics

Indonesia can be ‘big bridge’ between East and West in renewable energy push, says business magnate Anindya Bakrie

  • The Bakrie & Brothers CEO said Indonesia has been trying to ‘balance its trade with the West’ alongside China’s investments in the country
  • He further urged Southeast Asian governments and businesses to view the green-energy transition as an opportunity rather than a net-zero initiative

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Anindya Novyan Bakrie, CEO of Bakrie & Brothers speaks at SCMP’s Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023. Bakrie, whose company has supplied some 52 electric public buses to Jakarta, believed that the business community should take the lead in Southeast Asia’s decarbonisation efforts. Photo: SCMP/May Tse
Dewey Sim
Indonesia can be a “big bridge” between the East and the West by serving markets in both regions as part of its renewable energy push, one of the country’s most prominent business magnates has said.
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Anindya Novyan Bakrie, chief executive officer of conglomerate Bakrie & Brothers, said China has heavily invested in Indonesia over the years but the Southeast Asian country has been “trying to balance its trade with the West”.

For example, Indonesia – which holds the world’s largest nickel reserves – could supply Western countries with raw, processed and battery materials, he said.

China was Indonesia’s second-largest investor last year with US$8.2 billion, behind Singapore.

Anindya Novyan Bakrie, CEO of Bakrie & Brothers, speaks at SCMP’s Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023. His company has made the pivot to renewable energy. Photo: May Tse
Anindya Novyan Bakrie, CEO of Bakrie & Brothers, speaks at SCMP’s Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023. His company has made the pivot to renewable energy. Photo: May Tse

“You can imagine that Indonesia, one day very soon, will be having a net-zero industrial park processing nickel minerals with wind [energy] … and then selling to the West and being able to see them as premium products,” Bakrie said in an interview on Monday with This Week in Asia on the sidelines of the Hong Kong-Asean Summit 2023.

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