IMIP Morowali as a National Strategic Project: The Political Economy of Nickel Downstream Industrialization in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36574/Keywords:
mineral downstream industrialization, resource nationalism, developmental state, global value chains, Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, National Strategic Project, structural transformationAbstract
This paper analyses Indonesia's mineral downstream industrialization policy—specifically the downstreaming of nickel through the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP)—from a development political economy perspective. Drawing on a combined framework of second-generation resource nationalism, developmental state theory, and global value chain (GVC) analysis, the paper argues that IMIP as a National Strategic Project (NSP) represents an ambitious yet contradictory form of state intervention: one that has succeeded in driving significant structural transformation and regional industrialization, while simultaneously confronting formidable challenges in the form of technological dependency, constrained subnational fiscal capacity, environmental degradation, and the risk of becoming trapped at an intermediate processing stage—the so-called midstream trap. The paper maps the multi-dimensional dynamics of IMIP's transformation—spanning regional economic growth, labour markets, fiscal capacity, urbanization, and social integration—and identifies their implications for Indonesia's industrialization strategy towards Indonesia Emas (Golden Indonesia) 2045.
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