Academia
Export oriented: Using a rubber-tired gantry crane, port workers load export-bound containers onto a vessel flying a Portuguese flag on June 24, 2025, at Tanjung Mas port in Semarang, Central Java. (Antara/Aji Styawan)
Indonesia has introduced a new exception to its natural resources export proceeds (DHE-SDA) policy, allowing exporters from the United States, China, Australia and Canada greater flexibility in managing their export proceeds. The announcement marks the first significant relaxation of a policy that, only months earlier, was expanded to require most natural resource exporters to retain 100 percent of their export earnings in Indonesia's state-owned banks (Himbara) for 12 months.Earlier this year, the government had argued that the year-long lockup was essential to strengthening Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves and financial resilience. The latest exemption, however, creates a noticeably wider gap between the treatment afforded to exporters from the four exempted countries and those from the rest of the world. Rather than simply adjusting an existing policy, the decision effectively establishes two different regulatory regimes for exporters depending on the destination of their exports.
