Indonesia eyes China partnerships to build industry and tech ‘better than the EU standard’

Developing partnerships with Chinese corporations is crucial for Indonesia, especially in three main areas – turning waste to energy, smart grids and data centres – as China is at the forefront of such new technology, according to an executive of the Southeast Asian country’s sovereign wealth fund.

Danantara Indonesia, the investment arm that consolidates and optimises the government’s investment to support national economic growth, has set its sights on cooperating with China to lower emissions and fix environmental problems while strengthening infrastructure, energy and technology developments that “can be even better than the EU standard”.

“Last week, I had a very good discussion with [Chinese business representatives who] supervise all [issues] related to waste, energy, renewables and the battery ecosystem, and we have shared a lot of potential projects,” said Stefanus Ade Hadiwidjaja, a managing director at Danantara Indonesia, speaking on Tuesday in Jakarta at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026.

“They invited us to come to China,” he added. “Hopefully we’ll continue … to build the right approach for knowledge and technology transfer, and by doing this, it’s a win-win partnership between Chinese corporations as well as Indonesian local corporations.”

At a China Conference panel on Tuesday, the function of patient capital – which focuses on long-term development – was discussed in the process of building up ecosystems in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) markets and the role of China in collaborating with countries in the region to drive up growth.

At the 2026 World Economic Forum in January, Pandu Patria Sjahrir, chief investment officer at Danantara Indonesia, affirmed the position of the investment arm as a source of patient capital that will help strengthen national strategic sectors through global partnerships.

Speaking on the same China Conference panel, Jason Chen, chief operating officer and managing director at Gobi Partners, said that “it’s really our strategy to create a network of footprints across Asia” as a venture capital firm, and stay in a position to “provide the space for a lot of Chinese tech companies to come to land in Asean countries”.

Saying the collaboration aims to “make Asia great again”, Chen also highlighted that Hong Kong is “very useful”, as the financial centre sits between Asean and mainland China.

“So,” Chen said, “the term Greater Bay Area, for us, is not just the GBA, it’s a Greater Bay Asean – it’s connecting other parts of China into Asean, and Hong Kong is exactly the nexus.”