Former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto will continue President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s industry downstreaming strategy if they win next year’s presidential election, while former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan will likely “recalibrate” the scheme if chosen, their campaign teams have said.

Concern over industrial downstreaming’s impact on the climate, however, has become a unanimous worry.

At a discussion at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday in Jakarta, speakers from each of the candidates’ campaign teams shared the views of their aspiring presidents on industrial downstreaming, with Anies’ team the only one that seemed cold on continuing the Jokowi-style scheme.

Former trade minister and Anies spokesperson Thomas Lembong said that there was an “urgent need” for the government to reevaluate their trade and mining policies, saying that the current scheme was out of touch with market demands and has been wrongfully hyper-focused on nickel.

A more comprehensive and holistic approach to downstreaming must be undertaken, he argued.

Jokowi’s strategy to downstream some of the country’s industries, like its critical mineral industry, have in recent years become the economic hallmark of his nearly decade-long administration.

The policy included export bans on some of the country’s commodities, most notably raw nickel, the mineral key to the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and to Indonesia’s plan of capturing the lion’s share of the EV battery supply chain by processing nickel domestically.

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