South East Sulawesi
Nickel boom province where 1% investment adds 0.98% to GDP, but food imports from Java and jobs go to outsiders.
The nickel beneath South East Sulawesi's soil has turned the province into a laboratory for Indonesia's resource nationalism experiment. A 2023 INDEF study found that a 1% increase in nickel investment here contributes 0.98% to national GDP—nearly one-to-one leverage. The deposits attracted Merdeka Battery Materials and other firms seeking land from the Mopute Indigenous community and their neighbors, converting traditional territories into industrial zones.
The capital Kendari serves as the administrative center for this transformation, though the actual industrial activity clusters in northern regencies closer to the massive IMIP complex in neighboring Central Sulawesi. Much of the food supply for nickel workers is imported from Java, meaning local farmers suffer both pollution damage and exclusion from the boom's consumer benefits. Employment prioritizes locals, but skills shortages mean many jobs go to workers from elsewhere.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce in South East Sulawesi aims to convert these challenges into growth opportunities. By 2026, the province will test whether resource extraction can generate inclusive development—creating local supply chains, building skills, and distributing gains—or whether South East Sulawesi becomes another example of a resource curse where wealth flows outward and communities are left with depleted land.