REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Transportation Minister Evert Erenst Mangindaan hopes that aircraft will use biodiesel as fuel, saying biofuel can boost development within the nations transportation industries.

"The utilization of biodiesel and renewable energy in the transportation sector will also boost the development of local content industries. It generates development in research, technology on upstream and downstream production and distribution," the minister said recently.

The minister noted that the development and utilization of renewable energy in the transportation sector would also enhance job opportunities and open new economic activities.

Therefore, he said, the software system of stakeholders needed to be reinforced, such as reinforcement of institutions, regulations, human resources capacities, business processes and modern governance.

He said that his ministry had also cooperated with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It encouraged Indonesia, as the first country to formalize the legal basis for the use of biofuel in aviation. 

"I need to remind us all that the international community continues monitoring our endeavor, hoping that Indonesia will become a role model for the global utilization of biofuel in aviation," the minister said.

Earlier, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said Indonesia had not yet fully explored its abundant renewable resources. "As an example, Indonesia has geothermal potential of 30,000 megawatts but only about 1,300 megawatts have been used," Wacik said, when addressing the "Bali Energy Charter Conference" in Kuta, Bali, on September 19, 2013.

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