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Belt and Road takes ties to 'next level'
By PRIME SARMIENTO in Hong Kong | China Daily Global | Updated: 2023-09-01
Editor's note: This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. A decade of practice has demonstrated that it's a broad and prosperous way for China and the world to share opportunities and seek common development. In a more than 10-part series, China Daily finds out how the road of peace, prosperity, openness, green development, innovation and civilization will contribute more to the shared future of mankind.
Initiative boosts Chinese investment in Indonesia, becoming its largest trade partner
For Indonesian businessman Suwito, the Belt and Road Initiative has taken China-Indonesia relations "to the next level". Ten years after China put forward a global infrastructure and development program, Suwito noted the BRI has boosted Chinese investments and expanded trade with Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
"More Chinese companies have been investing in Indonesia (since the BRI started). Chinese companies have also opened offices in Indonesia, and now China is the number one (source of investments). China is now the largest trading partner of Indonesia," he said.
In 2022, China emerged as the second biggest source of foreign direct investments, or FDI, for Indonesia, with FDI inflows at 8.2 billion.
Suwito, deputy chairman for the Hong Kong and Macao Committee of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, can personally attest to how the BRI has boosted Indonesian industries. Suwito's logistics company has enjoyed brisk business since the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, or IMIP, opened in 2015 in the Central Sulawesi Province.
The IMIP, a joint venture between Shanghai Decent Investment and Indonesia's Bintang Delapan Group, is home to nickel-related industries in Morowali, an area rich in nickel deposits. Suwito said his company's trucks and barges have been leased to transport coal and nickel in the IMIP.
Suwito said that IMIP is helping Indonesia, one of the world's biggest nickel producers, to export more high-value products such as processed nickel.
The IMIP is perhaps among the most high-profile BRI projects in Indonesia. Experts and industry players said the IMIP illustrates how the BRI has strengthened bilateral relations and supported Indonesia's development goals.
Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, chief executive officer of the Jakarta-based conglomerate Sintesa Group and chairwoman of the Indonesian Employers Association, APINDO, said the BRI projects are in line with Indonesian President Joko Widodo's focus on infrastructure development and economic growth. Kamdani also cited Widodo's thrust on more investments outside of Java, Indonesia's fourth-biggest island and home to more than half of the nation's population. The capital city of Jakarta is located in Java.
Reducing emissions
She said developing more infrastructure in other islands would improve people's quality of life, especially in rural areas. Kamdani said the BRI is aiding Indonesia's "economic decentralization", noting that several of BRI's big projects are in other areas of the archipelago.
Indeed, some of the most notable BRI projects in Indonesia are located outside of Java. The IMIP, for example, is located in Central Sulawesi while the Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park, or IWIP, is in the province of North Maluku. Like the IMIP, Weda Bay is an integrated nickel mining and processing zone.
Indonesia accounts for over 20 percent of the global nickel reserves and this huge resource has spurred the Indonesian government to promote the electric vehicle manufacturing industry. Nickel is one of the materials used for making batteries that power EVs.
The Batang Toru hydropower plant in North Sumatra aims to boost the country's renewable energy resources and reduce carbon emissions. The Probolinggo-Banyuwangi Toll Road in East Java, once complete, will be integrated with an existing ferry seaport that can ease traveling between the islands of Java and Bali.
Indonesia is perhaps one of the countries most closely associated with the BRI because it was in Jakarta, during a state visit in October 2013, that President Xi Jinping first proposed the idea of creating a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. A month earlier, Xi proposed the idea of the Silk Road Economic Belt, which consists of road and rail construction, during his state visit to Kazakhstan. These two proposals would later evolve into what is now known as the Belt and Road Initiative.
Under the BRI, highways and railways, oil and gas pipelines, power networks, economic zones and industrial parks were built across Asia, Africa and Europe. These projects are expected to stren