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President Joko Widodo inaugurated the laying of the groundwork for the construction of the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) smelter located in the Java Integrated Industrial and Ports Estate (JIIPE) Special Economic Zone Gresik, East Java on Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
"I received a report that the smelter to be built with a single line design is the largest in the world because it is capable of processing 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate per year or 480,000 tons of copper metal. This is huge," Jokowi said as broadcast on the Secretariat's YouTube channel. President, Tuesday, October 12, 2021.
Jokowi said that the construction of the smelter in the country was one of the government's strategic policies related to the copper industry after Indonesia controlled 51 percent of Freeport's shares.
"This will provide added value for the country, meaning it will provide higher income to the country, then create more jobs," said Jokowi. He said that many do not know that Indonesia is included in the category of seven countries that have the largest copper reserves in the world.
This potential, said Jokowi, must be utilized as well as possible and as much as possible for the prosperity of the people. "So, don't let us have mines, but the smelters are in other countries. The added value means those who enjoy them. This is why the PT Freeport smelter was built domestically, namely in Gresik," said Jokowi. The construction of smelters in the country is expected to strengthen the downstream industry. Jokowi will then order one by one the companies, both private and state-owned enterprises, related to mineral and coal mining to enter downstream. "For what? Once again, so that our commodities are of higher value, so they don't continue to send raw materials," he said.
Jokowi hopes that the presence of the PT Freeport Indonesia smelter in the Gresik Special Economic Zone will be an attraction for other industries, especially the copper derivative industry, to enter the Gresik SEZ. "The government will continue to provide full support so that our investment climate will improve. We will also continue to support infrastructure, ease and certainty of doing business to the availability of human resources in accordance with industry needs," said Jokowi.
Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1516406/groundbreaking-smelter-freeport-di-gresik-jokowi-ini-terbesar-di-dunia