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Plan for Morowali car battery factory inches closer to fruition
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Blue Bird Group Holding president director Noni Purnomo (left), Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan (third right), Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi (second right) and PT Blue Bird Tbk director Andrianto Djokosoetono (right) present the company's electric taxi in Jakarta in April. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
T
he government expects to complete the Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) for a car battery factory in Central Sulawesi next month, moving the project one step closer to the beginning of construction.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters after a meeting with the Environment and Forestry Ministry in Jakarta on Monday evening that the government “hoped the assessment could be finalized by Dec. 18.”
Once the assessment is completed, companies can begin development on the US$3.2 billion factory in Morowali regency, which will produce lithium batteries. Construction work is expected to begin in January.
Global demand for electric vehicles is rising, and the Morowali battery plant is one of Indonesia’s many investments in efforts to tap the global supply chain.
The World Bank in its presentation expressed concern that Indonesia’s complicated export procedures might leave the country less integrated in global supply chains than other countries.
“Exporting cars requires being part of integrated supply chains across multiple countries,” reads a presentation slide from the World Bank recently conveyed to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post. “Indonesia is largely cut off.”
The Washington, DC-based institution said the relative isolation from global supply chains in manufacturing was due to a series of nontariff measures that made importing capital goods difficult for carmakers.
