(Bloomberg) — Indonesia, home to one of the world’s largest gold mines, plans to set up a bullion bank to spur trading of the precious metal domestically.
The government is consulting with parties including the central bank and the mining industry, with a plan to start operating the bank in 2024, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said.
“Our exports have gone to transit countries because they have better gold trading systems, either in the form of bullion banks or better bourses than ours,” Lutfi said in an interview Monday. “As a gold producing country why would we sell it to transit countries?”
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest gold producer, with the Grasberg mine in Papua holding one of the world’s largest reserves.
The push to create a bullion bank is part of resource-rich Indonesia’s broader effort to climb up the commodities value chain.
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