Indonesia's policies on extractive industries.
The end-April deadline set by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is fast approaching for the government and US mining company Freeport-McMoRan to conclude talks over plans for Jakarta to acquire a majority stake in PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), which runs the economically important Grasberg mine in Papua province. The government is pressing foreign companies to bear more costs in their operations or relinquish majority ownership. Such tensions risk undermining the government’s aim of deregulating extractive industries to improve Indonesia’s investment climate ahead of the presidential and legislative elections due in April 2019.
Domestic market obligations on coal producers could result in a loss of around 200 million dollars in state revenues.
Over half of Indonesia’s annual coal production will be consumed domestically by 2019.
A rise in foreign workers could become a campaign issue in June’s regional elections and next year’s national polls.
