Jakarta, 22 May 2026—The Government is strengthening the governance of strategic natural resource commodity exports through the establishment of an export body or aggregator, Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI). This was conveyed directly by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, during the DPR Plenary Meeting on the 2027 Macroeconomic Framework and Fiscal Policy Principles (KEM-PPKF), Wednesday (20/5). In its initial phase, this policy will cover palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys, all of which have very large export values. This measure represents a concrete government effort to close export value leakages, optimize export proceeds, and strengthen Indonesia’s bargaining position in the global market.

Prasasti Center for Policy Studies (Prasasti) views the establishment of a natural resource export body under DSI as a strategic step that is relevant to the need to strengthen the fundamentals of the national economy. Amid pressure on the rupiah and the need to strengthen the state revenue base, transparency in strategic commodity exports has a direct impact on foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate stability. When part of export value is either unrecorded or not repatriated, pressure on the rupiah increases and fiscal space narrows.

This policy is also aligned with the direction of the 2027 Macroeconomic Framework and Fiscal Policy Principles (KEM-PPKF), which emphasizes the strengthening of downstreaming, economic resilience, and the optimization of state revenue. Prasasti Board of Trustees member, Fuad Bawazier, said the establishment of DSI addresses long-standing structural issues, namely fragmented export recording across ports, weak price validation, and suboptimal repatriation of foreign exchange. According to him, as a major commodity-producing country, Indonesia needs an instrument capable of consolidating export recording, price validation, and foreign exchange repatriation in a more systematic manner.

“Strengthening natural resource export governance through DSI is an important and strategic agenda. Indonesia cannot continue allowing high-value commodities to leave through fragmented recording and transaction systems. This step is aligned with the need to maintain foreign exchange reserves, strengthen state revenue, and support exchange rate stability amid ongoing external pressures,” Fuad said.

As stated by President Prabowo, the accumulated indication of natural resource export under-invoicing during 1991–2024 is estimated to reach around US$908 billion, equivalent to Rp15,980.9 trillion. This figure illustrates the scale of potential value that has not fully benefited the national economy. The presence of an export aggregator can be understood as an effort to strengthen state control at the point of export transactions—not merely by adding another bureaucratic layer, but by serving as an instrument to ensure that export values are recorded more accurately, foreign exchange returns more optimally, and Indonesia’s global bargaining position becomes stronger.

Fuad added that, institutionally, export aggregation is not new to Indonesia. Tin management through PT Timah and oil and gas governance through SKK Migas under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) scheme have served as forms of partial aggregation that are already in place. At the global level, similar models are also widely implemented, ranging from state energy companies such as Saudi Aramco and QatarEnergy, state trading enterprises in China such as COFCO, to single-desk exporters such as Zespri in New Zealand’s kiwifruit sector, as well as dominant cooperatives such as Fonterra in the dairy sector, which controls a large share of national export volume.

“Global experience shows that export aggregators can create significant economic impact. Saudi Aramco has recorded annual net income in the range of US$100–160 billion in recent years, with a record US$161 billion in 2022. Similarly, several of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, such as Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, are supported by the management of state natural resource exports. This serves as an important reference that an instrument such as DSI has major potential to become a backbone of Indonesia’s long-term revenue and investment,” Fuad added.

Fuad also underlined that in a highly uncertain global environment, economic actors and investors tend to monitor how fiscal, monetary, and sectoral policy synchronization is carried out in a consistent and prudent manner. The presence of DSI as an instrument for natural resource export governance can form part of that synchronization, provided that it is designed with clear and measurable mechanisms.

Nevertheless, Prasasti believes that DSI’s success will be heavily determined by the clarity of its implementation mechanism and the quality of policy communication to businesses, investors, and the public. A strong policy substance still requires a credible implementation design in order to be accepted by all stakeholders. Prasasti Policy and Program Director, Piter Abdullah, said that the implementation phase is an important moment for the Government and Danantara to assert DSI’s position as a market-based transparency instrument.

“This policy is very strong in substance. The challenge is to ensure that market and industry perceptions remain positive during the transition period. DSI needs to be positioned as a mechanism for strengthening recording, price validation, and foreign exchange repatriation, not as an body that takes margins through unilateral price control. This distinction is important so that unnecessary concerns do not arise among businesses and investors,” Piter said. Piter added that policy communication must be carried out proactively, consistently, and technically, both to the public and to investors.

“For investors, the most important message is that DSI is a mechanism for transparency and value recovery, not a disguised form of nationalization or non-market-based price control. With the swift and open publication of implementing regulations, pricing formulas, audit mechanisms, and DSI governance, market confidence can be maintained—and even strengthened,” Piter explained.

Prasasti views Indonesia as being at the right moment to build a more advanced architecture for natural resource export governance. With fiscal space that remains relatively maintained, a large domestic consumption base, and diversified energy sources supporting national economic resilience, the presence of DSI can become a catalyst for optimizing national natural wealth while strengthening economic sovereignty.

The major question going forward for the Government and Danantara Indonesia is no longer whether an export aggregator is needed, but how its mechanisms and pricing formulas can be designed to be credible, market-based, and accountable. If mechanism clarity can be maintained through consistent communication and open dialogue with businesses, DSI has the potential to steer Indonesia’s natural resource export governance toward becoming more transparent, more value-added, and stronger in the eyes of the world.