The Acting Governor of the Bangka Belitung Islands Suganda Pandapotan Pasaribu became a resource person at the 2023 Indonesia Miner Conference and Exhibition with the topic Returning Tin into a Strategic Mineral l at the Westin Hotel Jakarta on Tuesday (6/6/2023).
In his presentation, The Governor of Bangka Belitung, Suganda said that he fully agreed and encouraged the downstreaming of tin in Bangka Belitng Islands is like President Joko Widodo's previous wish.
"It is very profitable if there are companies that process directly downstream, it will open up jobs in the Babel Islands. We agree that technology must also be considered, that way the profits will also be greater than just exporting tin blocks abroad," he said.
With downstream, not only will the country benefit, but with the condition of the tin price, the economy of the people of Bangka Belitng Islands, which has been on the Tin Producing Island for 400 years, can increase several times from today.
"However, there is no need to regret this, because we will continue to act and hopefully from this meeting we will produce a strategic policy by establishing tin as a strategic mineral that can contribute benefits to the country and the welfare of the people in the Bangka Belitng Islands," he hoped.
Although Bangka Belitung is a tin-producing province, but in fact it was explained by Suganda that the Development Index in Bangka Belitng Islands is still low and the stunting rate in Bangka Belitung also needs to be suppressed. This is because many of their children drop out of school, they feel they can make money by mining tin so they marry at a young age, this has an impact on stunting .
For this reason, he said that it was the shared responsibility of all parties including entrepreneurs, tin activists in Bangka Belitng Islands to take action to overcome this.
Apart from that, he also wants all parties to have the same perception regarding the definition of Strategic Minerals through two approaches including:
1. The approach to using strategic minerals needed in the development of the military, industrial or other commercial purposes which have an important impact on the economy, defence, medicine, transportation, information and communication technology, renewable energy and aerospace;
2. An approach to efforts to ensure the availability of strategic mineral supplies that are not available domestically to safeguard national interests through purchase or import contracts with mineral producers.
He explained that the designation of tin as a strategic mineral was an effort to strengthen state/government control in managing it for wider national and/or regional interests in the future.
"It is necessary to create an ideal and just tin industry ecosystem, so that optimization of state revenues, environmental protection and active involvement and community empowerment can be realized," he concluded.
