Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Nezar Patria revealed Indonesia's potential to enter the growing global artificial intelligence (AI) industry supply chain.
"We are the world's largest tin producer. Tin is a key ingredient in the chip -making process ," Nezar said.
He said that Indonesia also has silica sand, sand that contains silicon, a raw material in the manufacture of semiconductors.
However, he said, Indonesia can currently only supply raw materials, but cannot yet process them according to industrial needs.
He emphasized that Indonesia must improve its resource management capabilities to participate in the AI industry supply chain.
Besides being rich in raw materials, Nezar said, Indonesia has abundant energy resources to support data centers for AI development.
"We have an excess of renewable energy . We produce quite a lot of electricity, and even a year ago, we had an abundance, a surplus of electricity," said Nezar.
Nezar also said that Indonesia has a large population, so it can provide human resources to support the development of the AI industry.
"We have the largest population in Southeast Asia, 285 million people with an average age of 30 years," he said.
