Led by the Industry Ministry, the road map is scheduled to be ready by the end of next year and serve as a reference for industrial development from 2025 to 2035, with the aim of building the capability to produce silicon wafers onshore within that timeframe.

“Silica [industry development] as a national program will only receive its budget allocation […] in 2024,” Wiwik Pudjiastuti, a director in the Industry Ministry, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The road map will cover six strategic aspects, namely a review of Indonesia’s resources, the actors involved, existing and necessary manufacturing technology, policies, human capital and the market potential, both domestic and foreign.

Silica is the raw material for silicon wafers, and the latter are the building blocks of semiconductor chips as well as photovoltaic modules, commonly known as solar panels, meaning its processing could serve two different manufacturing industries.

According to 2021 Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry data, Indonesia has some 330 million tonnes of silica sand reserves, with a far bigger resource potential of 2.1 billion tonnes. Wiwik explained that this number was subject to change through future surveying.

However, the resource alone does not translate into a strong competitive advantage, given that silica can be found in virtually any country. Hence, the government cannot bank on that to attract investment.