Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the Inauguration of the 2023 Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), at JIExpo Convention Center and Theater, DKI Jakarta Province, February 16, 2023

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

Good morning,

May peace be upon us.

Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia who also helms the Indonesian Motor Association, Bapak Bambang Soesatyo,

Ministers of the Onward Indonesia Cabinet,

His Excellency Ambassador of the Kingdom of Cambodia,

CEO Kompas Gramedia and Dyandra Promosindo Management,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our automotive industries have a very bright prospect because they saw a significant increase every year. In 2002, they grew 18 percent, increasing than those in previous years. It is recorded that the domestic sales of cars reached 1,048,000 units. Meanwhile, the sales of motorcycles grew 3.3 percent to 5,221,000 units in 2022. Consequently, traffic congestion occurred everywhere as I notice when I visit Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Medan. Indeed, this is because the domestic sales achievement was quite high.

To ease traffic congestion, I encourage all automotive industries to become more export-oriented. The export increased sharply from 300 thousand vehicles in 2021 to 600 thousand vehicles in 2022. I would like to appreciate the domestic automotive industry players for their success in increasing 100 percent of vehicle exports. However, our achievement is still lower than that of Thailand. Therefore, I hope that the export of Indonesian vehicles to also keeps increasing every year.

Secondly, the global trend in the future, countries worldwide will switch to the electric vehicles (EVs) ecosystem. I also invite the automotive industry players to start seeing this trend and to shift the industry towards the trend that almost all countries are currently moving towards, from combustion to electric vehicles. The Government is also currently pushing sectors from upstream to downstream to immediately have this large ecosystem of EVs. Therefore, they can enter the global supply chain. From EVs batteries to lithium batteries, we will continue to complete them soon.

Now, investors should stop making cathodes or precursors. They have to make EVs batteries, so that we can get more added values from the industry we have.

That concludes my statement. By saying bismillahirrahmanirrahim, today I officially inaugurate the 2023 Indonesia International Motor Show.

I thank you.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

(GA/MUR)