By Maret Samuel Sueken
Jakarta, Gi-media.com, 
29 Agustus 2026
Today, Indonesia is echoing loudly with the narrative of “downstreaming”. From political stages to bureaucratic meeting rooms, downstreaming is being promoted as one of the key paths to Golden Indonesia 2045.
But as an engineer who has spent decades executing major projects — including offshore projects both domestically and abroad — and who now also oversees policy within State-Owned Enterprises, I see one big missing link that we haven’t fully talked about.
The meaning of downstreaming is often reduced to simply building factories, smelters, refineries, or industrial facilities physically within the country.
The question then is: Who designs it? Who builds it? Who manufactures the equipment? Who transports it? Who installs and operates it? And more importantly: where will that capability remain after the project is finished?
Maret Samuel Sueken, Chairman of JPKP, Independent Commissioner of PT Rekayasa Industri, and Senior EPCC Practitioner.
This, in my view, is where our fundamental problem lies.
DOWNSTREAMING MUST NOT JUST MOVE PRODUCTS. DOWNSTREAMING MUST MOVE CAPABILITIES.
The reality is, in heavy industry engineering and construction, Indonesia still faces a long-standing gap.
We do not yet have enough national companies with world-class, integrated capabilities in Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Commissioning (EPCC)* and Transport & Installation (T&I)
As a result, strategic projects worth billions still heavily involve global players such as McDermott, Saipem, Chiyoda, JGC, Hyundai, Nippon Steel Engineering, and other international companies.
The presence of global companies is not something to reject. They bring technology, experience, and capabilities that we need.
The issue is not foreign vs national.
The issue is: How much strategic capability can we build and retain in Indonesia?*
We must not end up successfully downstreaming commodities, while at the same time still importing most of our engineering capability, technology know-how, fabrication capability, project management capability, industrial equipment, and T&I capability.
If that happens, then our downstreaming will only produce _product downstreaming_, not yet _industrial capability downstreaming_.
THE ANATOMY OF A “COMPLETE EPCC”: BRAIN, HANDS, AND FEET
To build industrial capability sovereignty, Indonesia can no longer use a partial approach.
A national EPCC ecosystem must be viewed as a complete organism with three main elements: BRAIN – HANDS – FEET.
1. BRAIN Engineering, Technology & Intellectual Property
This is the upstream of all industrial capability.
Without mastery of engineering, design, process technology, digital engineering, project management, cost engineering, planning, commissioning, and technology integration, we will remain dependent on others’ blueprints.
Engineering is not just a consulting service. Engineering is intellectual capital and strategic industrial capability.
2. HANDS Fabrication, Manufacturing & Industrial Capability
Engineering on paper must be turned into real objects.
We need fabrication yards, workshops, manufacturing capability, modularization, assembly, warehouses, equipment bases, and a supply-chain ecosystem that can support large-scale industrial projects.
Without “hands”, national engineering will always depend on others’ production facilities. That means higher costs, longer lead times, high import dependency, and TKDN risks becoming just an administrative number.
Real TKDN is: how much industrial capability actually stays in Indonesia.
3. FEET — Jetty, Logistics & Transport & Installation
This is one of our most strategic weaknesses.
We can have great engineering. We can have large fabrication yards.
But if we cannot transport, mobilize, and install the fabricated results to the project site, then our ecosystem remains incomplete.
“Feet” must include jetties, heavy transport, heavy lifting, marine logistics, offshore support, installation capability, pipelaying, and an integrated maritime supply chain.
Brain designs. Hands build. Feet deliver and install.
When one element is missing, value leakage occurs: most of the economic value and strategic capability of the project flows back overseas.
REKIND: FROM NATIONAL CHAMPION TO GLOBAL EPCC PLAYER
Amid this challenge, Indonesia has a very valuable strategic asset: PT Rekayasa Industri (Rekind).
Rekind has over four decades of experience in engineering and EPC, with human resources, project references, engineering databases, project management systems, vendor networks, and experience in strategic industrial projects.
In other words: Rekind has the “Brain”.
But to become a world-class EPCC company, Rekind needs stronger and more integrated “Hands” and “Feet”.
This is where state policy can play a strategic role. Indonesia has SOEs and national companies with ports, industrial land, shipyards, workshops, warehouses, logistics infrastructure, and human resources that can be developed into this ecosystem.
There is Pelindo, PT PAL, PT Industri Kapal Indonesia (IKI), and others.
The question is not whether one company owns all the assets.
The question is: Can the state build a policy to integrate these national strategic assets into a national industrial execution platform?
LEFT POCKET AND RIGHT POCKET ARE BOTH RED AND WHITE
We need industrial policy, not protectionism that makes national companies uncompetitive, nor project handouts without considering capability and efficiency.
Imagine if: The Owner is Red and White. Strategic capital is Red and White. Industrial assets are Red and White. The market is Red and White. The human resources are our own people.
Then why don’t we also build: *Red and White EPCC capability?
Left pocket and right pocket should both be Red and White.
We don’t want development money to leave the left pocket, while the industrial capability is built in the right pocket of another nation.
We are not closing the door to the world.
We want national companies strong enough to open the door to the world.
Global companies are still needed. Competition must remain open. Global technology must come in.
But Indonesia must also have national companies that can partner with global players today, and compete with them tomorrow.
REKIND MUST NOT JUST BE RESCUED. REKIND MUST BE TRANSFORMED.
State policy toward Rekind cannot stop at financial rescue. What is needed is strategic transformation:
GET OUT Exit legacy exposure and complete distressed projects.
GET HEALTHY Restore cash, debt capacity, equity, working capital, bonding capacity, and credibility.
GET GROWING Build New Rekind with a healthy, selective, and disciplined business model.
GO GLOBAL Become a *Global EPCC Player from Indonesia.
Every state support must have a strategic return: building engineering capability, fabrication capability, technology capability, project management, human resources, vendor ecosystem, infrastructure, T&I capability, and ultimately, global competitiveness.
FROM NATIONAL PROJECTS TO A “SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE”
Every national project should not just be a source of revenue.
Each project must leave behind: knowledge, engineering databases, technology know-how, vendor capability, certified human resources, fabrication capability, project references, and global-standard execution capability.
After years of national projects, Rekind should be able to say:
“We have the capability, people, technology, infrastructure, references, and governance to compete in the global market.”_
THIS IS THE MOMENT
Indonesia is entering a huge momentum: Mineral Downstreaming. Energy Sovereignty. Food Security. Energy Transition. Geothermal. Renewable Energy. Petrochemicals. Industrial Utilities. Strategic Infrastructure.
So let’s think further.
Don’t just build factories. Build the nation’s capability to build those factories.
True downstreaming is not just:
Mine → Smelter → Product.
But:
Engineering → Technology → Procurement → Fabrication → Construction → Commissioning → Operation → Maintenance → HR Knowledge Industrial Capability.
This is capability downstreaming.
And Rekind can be one of the strategic vehicles to achieve it.
FROM REKIND FOR INDONESIA
My dream is that one day, when Indonesia builds smelters, refineries, petrochemicals, fertilizer plants, geothermal, renewables, offshore facilities, and strategic infrastructure, we will first ask:
“What can be done by the capability of our own people?”
If not yet capable, we partner.
If we don’t master the technology, we learn.
If capacity is lacking, we build it.
If infrastructure is missing, the state and SOEs can build it.
And when the time comes:
Rekind will no longer be just a National EPCC Champion.
Rekind will be a Global EPCC Player from Indonesia.
Competing with McDermott, Saipem, Chiyoda, JGC, Hyundai, Toyo, Nippon Steel Engineering, SMOE not as spectators or subcontractors, but as players.
45 YEARS IS NOT THE END. THIS IS THE START OF A NEW CHAPTER.
That is the true meaning of Rekind’s 45-year journey.
Not just celebrating age, but answering: “What does Indonesia need Rekind for in the next 45 years?”
To ensure that when strategic owners in Indonesia become more Red and White, the capability to build also becomes more Red and White.
Industrial sovereignty is not just about who owns the project.
It is also about *who owns the engineering, who masters the technology, who can produce, who can build, who can operate, who owns the human resources, and who controls industrial execution.
OWNER RED AND WHITE. ENGINEERING RED AND WHITE. TECHNOLOGY RED AND WHITE. INDUSTRY RED AND WHITE. CAPABILITY RED AND WHITE. AND ULTIMATELY — A GLOBAL EPCC PLAYER FROM INDONESIA.🇮🇩
That is my dream for Rekind.
Source: Maret Samuel Sueken, Senior EPCC Practitioner, Independent Commissioner of PT Rekayasa Industri, and Chairman of JPKP.(Ine)
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