Jakarta, Aug. 5 -- Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia revealed Indonesia's plan to import lithium from Australia, as the country currently lacks this material for manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Lahadalia stated here on Tuesday that developing the EV battery ecosystem is one of the government's priorities in terms of downstreaming. Hence, his administration is committed to pursuing the development of that industry

He explained that materials required to produce these batteries include nickel, manganese, cobalt, and lithium.

"One of the countries we will collaborate with is Australia. All this time, we brought things from Africa. It would be more (budget-saving) to (import) from Australia because of th...