September 5, 2024
JAKARTA – At its conclusion on Tuesday, the Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF) 2024 had seen the signing of 32 new business partnerships, according to the Foreign Ministry, including nine in the health sector, six in renewable energy and four in strategic industries.
The energy and food sectors were the major contributors in terms of deal value, the ministry said, with the former accounting for agreements totaling US$1.5 billion, including one involving Pertamina.
In that deal, the state-owned oil and gas holding company acquired a 60 percent stake in Wentworth Resources, operator of the Mnazi Bay gas block in Tanzania. Pertamina also signed a contract with the Petroleum Training and Education Fund (Petrofund), established by the Namibian government.
Meanwhile, state electricity company PLN signed deals with the Tanzania Geothermal Development Company (TGDC) and the government-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) to develop 225 megawatts of geothermal power in Luhoi, Natron and Ngozi.
“Tanesco has also come here to explore the potential for developing geothermal power in Indonesia,” the ministry’s Africa Director Dewi Justicia Meidiwaty said in a statement on Tuesday.
Aside from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private companies also signed energy deals, such as the one between Jakarta-based PT Energi Mega Persada and Mbombela-headquartered Vutomi Energy to build independent power plants (IPPs) with a combined capacity of 500 MWs in South Africa.
Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala Mansury said on Monday that the forum resulted in food sector deals totaling $1.2 billion, particularly in fertilizer production.
Local ammonia producer PT Essa Industries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), the Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) and the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC) to build a factory in Tanzania to produce ammonia for manufacturing fertilizer.
PT Saputra Global Harvest meanwhile signed a sales agreement to provide coal fertilizer machines to Nigeria.
In other sectors, cosmetics producer PT Tirta Ayu Spa laid plans to build a factory in Eswatini and open a franchise branch in Zimbabwe.
Strategic industries, including the defense and aerospace sectors, contributed deals worth $173.5 million during the IAF, including an agreement for state-owned weapons manufacturer PT Pindad to supply its products to South Africa’s Rheinmetall Denel Munition.
Meanwhile, aerospace company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) signed an MoU to deliver two CN235 and five N219 aircraft to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. DI also renewed its agreement with the Senegalese Air Force, which has purchased three CN235 since 2011, to provide periodic inspections.
The health sector contributed $94.1 million in agreements during the forum, including deals between state-owned pharmaceutical firm Biofarma and several African countries.
These include an MoU with Natpharm to sell Biofarma products in Zimbabwe and sales agreements with Uganda, as well as deals with the Nigerian government on a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine. Biofarma firm also inked deals on technology transfers and employee training with Ghana’s Atlantic Lifesciences and Kenya’s Biovax Institute.