Sector
Mining
Indonesia, a country rich in natural resources, boasts a mining sector that is undeniably one of its leading sectors. With vast reserves of mineral and non-mineral mining resources, the country stands as a global powerhouse in the mining industry. As of 2022, Indonesia’s mining industry contributed Rp2.3 quadrillion to the national GDP, accounting for 12.22 percent.
View moreOther Sectors
Mining
Indonesia, a country rich in natural resources, boasts a mining sector that is undeniably one of its leading sectors. With vast reserves of mineral and non-mineral mining resources, the country stands as a global powerhouse in the mining industry. As of 2022, Indonesia’s mining industry contributed Rp2.3 quadrillion to the national GDP, accounting for 12.22 percent.
Mining flourishes across various regions of the country, each contributing to the nation’s economy. It is present in regions such as South Sumatra, Riau, Riau Islands, Bangka-Belitung, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and North Kalimantan. Additionally, mining is also prevalent in Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, North Maluku, Papua, and West Papua.
Indonesia’s wealth of mineral resources offers a wide variety of materials available for mining. From abundant reserves of gold, bauxite, tin, and copper concentrates to nickel ore, the country’s rich mineral resources signify significant potential for economic growth and development. In addition, Indonesia is also rich in coal mining, with its abundant coal reserves catering to the energy needs of both domestic and international markets.
The country's mining sector thrives on these resources. In 2023, mineral resources such as bauxite reached a production of 28 million tons, gold at 85 thousand kilograms, tin concentrate at 57 thousand metric tons, copper concentrate at 3 million metric tons, along with nickel ore at 98 million metric tons.3 Meanwhile, Indonesia’s coal production reached 775.2 million tons in 2023, almost double than ten years earlier when coal production stood at 421 million tons.
Additionally, Indonesia is home to oil and gas exploration and exploitation, although its output has been dwindling. Once an exporting country of oil and gas, Indonesia has transitioned into a net importer of these commodities since 2008 when consumption surpassed outputs, which stood at around 1 million barrels per day (bpd). In the first semester of 2023, Indonesia’s oil output stood at 615 bpd.
Subsequently, the government has worked hard to reverse the trend of falling oil output and has set a target to restore oil lifting to 1 million bpd in 2030, alongside a gas production target of 12 billion standard cubic feet per day (BSCFD). As of January 2023, Indonesia’s documented oil reserves were 2.41 billion barrels, and its natural gas reserves stood at 35.5 trillion cubic feet.
As for investments, Indonesia secured US$30.3 billion for the energy and mining sector in 2023, marking an 11 percent increase from the previous year. That same year, the oil and gas sector led the way,
achieving US$15.6 billion in investments, followed by mineral and coal at US$7.46 billion, electricity at US$5.8 billion, and renewable energy at US$1.5 billion.
Latest News
President Prabowo Subianto may be projecting himself globally and at home as a leader who is tough on corruption, not just in words but also in actions, with several high-profile corruption cases in his first year in office. But the business community is not impressed, and has even given the thumbs down to his overall anti-graft campaign.
This could have serious repercussions on Indonesia as an investment destination, especially compared with some of it Southeast Asian neighbors.
Indonesia’s 2025 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) showed a significant decline, with the score dropping to 34 out 100, down from 37 in 2024. Indonesia ranked 109th out of 180 countries surveyed, down 10 places. It is behind Singapore, Malaysia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam but scored better than Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia.
The CPI asks mostly business executives but also country experts and analysts about their assessment on various aspects of public sector corruption including bribery, kickbacks, embezzlement of public funds, effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts and transparency and accountability of government.
Experts cite narrowing public space, weakening enforcement and the erosion of judicial independence as key factors for Indonesia’s decline.
The 2025 CPI report, published by Transparency International this month, is in sharp contrast to a survey by Indikator Politik that says Prabowo continues to enjoy a high approval rating of 80 percent, thanks mainly to his social programs, including his signature program of providing free lunch to millions of school children nationwide.
Prabowo has repeatedly vowed to get tough on corruptors, getting to the roots of the problem and pledging he would hunt them down all the way to Antarctica.
In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, he said he would not make compromises with corruptors, citing as examples the recent crackdown on companies for illegal logging blamed for the massive flood disaster in Sumatra before the end of the year.
The year 2025 also saw some high-profile corruption cases, including one against Riza Khalid, a long-time contractor/supplier to state oil and gas company Pertamina, who is a fugitive, but his son Muhammad Kerry Adiranto is currently facing an 18-year jail term.
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Attorney General Office have also claimed to have saved the country trillions of rupiah from the corruption cases they handled.
As if this was not enough, in a speech on Indonesia’s economic outlook in Jakarta last week, the president hinted at the need to resort to an iron hand in dealing with corruptions. Responding to accusations that he had turned his back on democracy, the former Army general said: "But if you ask the people, maybe you also need a little authoritarianism [...] to fight those corruptors."
His predecessor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo weighed in on the anti-corruption drive this week suggesting that KPK should be governed by the old law when it had more power and independent. An irony, given that the change in the law happened in 2019 under his watch.
Even more irony because the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) supported Jokowi’s proposal to go back to the old KPK law. Although they now have parted ways, PDI-P was the main party in Jokowi’s coalition government that enabled the change in the law in the House of Representatives.
The change meant that since 2019, KPK reports to the president. It also lost some of the powers to support its work, including conducting wiretapping on corruption suspects, and it also changed the status of their staffers into civil servants.
It’s no coincidence that Indonesia’s CPI turned for the worse following the change. Indonesia scored the highest then at 40, and ranked 85 out of 180 countries surveyed.
The KPK had been on the frontline in the anti-graft campaigns during Jokowi’s first term in office in 2014-2019. In his second term in 2019-2024, he turned the agency, governed by the new law, into a powerful political tool to serve his interests, going after many of his political nemesis. All five current commissioners are his, rather than Prabowo’s, appointees.
Prabowo’s office has said the government is not entertaining the idea of going back to the old KPK law.
