INDONESIA: Taiwan eyes Indonesia`s petrochemical Industry: BKPM

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) said that Taiwanese investors have expressed interest in investing USD 2.5 billion in Indonesia’s petrochemical industry to produce ammonia and mega methanol.

BKPM head Franky Sibarani said that the investors are still looking for a perfect location and considering the availability of natural gas supplies as the raw material. “The investment value is quite huge. Therefore, we will keep looking at it until the investment is realized, including the location and the availability of the raw material,” Franky said in a press release. He explained that the investors have planned to build two factories, each with a size of 100 hectares, in two phases. The first phase would be aimed at producing 600,000 t/y of ammonia, and the second phase would target to produce 1.8 million t/y of mega methanol.  “The petrochemical industry is one of the strategic industries. Ammonia and mega methanol can produce many derivative products, such as consumer textile, industrial textile, engineering plastic, resin, rubber and acrylic fiber,” he said.

Mohamad Faizal, head of the Indonesian Commerce and Economy Body (KDEI) in Taipei, said that he was ready to intensively watch and facilitate the investment plan. He said that the petrochemical industry was expected to boost Indonesia’s export value and stimulate the development of other industries. “As suggested by the BKPM head, we have scheduled a meeting between the investors and the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKK Migas) to discuss related moves to realize the project development. We will help to address obstacles related to raw materials,” he added.

Sources: Daily “Tempo”, Jakarta; 10 Mar 2016 & bareksa.com, Jakarta; 10 Mar 2016
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)