VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan invited Singaporean investors to participate in several government projects ranging from mangrove planting programs to developing food barns or food estates in North Sumatra.

"I think Singapore can also be part of the mangrove planting program. With Abu Dhabi, we are targeting 10 thousand hectares. We can give Singapore a special area and being part of this program," said Luhut at the 7th Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources event (SDSWR) virtually, Wednesday.

Singapore's Minister of Sustainability and Environment Grace Fu also attended the SDSWR, which was organized by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

As a country that has 202 mangrove species, Indonesia awaits Singapore's presence in the program, including in its research field. Luhut added that Indonesia also has a hydropower potential of up to 35 thousand MW in Kalimantan and Papua, which will become energy and environmentally friendly products.

"Singapore could be a part of this project, for example. We have had discussions with Australia and they have sent a team to see this megaproject," he said.

Luhut said that another program that is being developed by Indonesia is lithium batteries because of the abundant supply of raw materials.

Several investors such as LG, CATL, and Tesla have communicated with Luhut regarding the mineral resource downstream program.

"We are doing this, we no longer want to export raw materials anymore. We want to see technology transfer in Indonesia, we want to see the industry in Indonesia. That's our dream," he said.

Another project offered to Singapore is the development of a food estate in Humbang Hasundutan, North Sumatra. Luhut said the Indonesian government plans to develop two food barns, namely in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra.

"We want to see your presence (Singapore). If you want to enter the horticulture (field) in Lake Toba, there are 60 thousand hectares of land there. Of course, we also want our neighbors to be part of this program. There are 300 thousand herbal species in Indonesia," he said. (Antaranews)