Indonesia Presses Industrial Ambitions at BRICS Forum in China

Indonesia reaffirmed its effort to accelerate industrial transformation through cooperation at the 2026 forum of the BRICS group, the state news agency Antara reported. Speaking at the forum on the New Industrial Revolution, held in the Chinese city of Xiamen, Indonesia's Ministry of Industry set out three priorities. They are digital and smart-factory development, a shift to clean-energy-based green industry, and stronger innovation and workforce skills.

The choice of location is significant. Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, joined BRICS as the bloc has expanded to include more developing economies that are seeking arrangements to reduce their dependence on Western institutions and the dollar. By aligning its manufacturing agenda with the group, Jakarta is signaling where it expects much of its future industrial partnership to come from.

The substance is connected to a national strategy known as Making Indonesia 4.0, which promotes digitalization, domestic processing of raw materials and the adoption of modern technology in manufacturing. The country sent eight national teams to a BRICS industrial innovation contest in categories including artificial intelligence and green industry, an effort to build domestic capability rather than remain a supplier of unprocessed commodities.

The wider significance is the direction of the change. As a resource-rich economy that has restricted raw exports to force more processing at home, Indonesia is positioning itself within a bloc that presents economic cooperation as an alternative to a Western-centered order, a gradual but steady move toward a more multipolar arrangement of trade and finance.