As a resource-rich country, many of Indonesia a main comparative advantages are actually in the resource-based industries which include agriculture, fisheries and ocean resources, forestry, energy and mineral resources, tourism and renewable energy opportunities such as wave energy, tidal energy and ocean thermal energy conversion. Immense opportunities exist in several of these areas as underlined by some of the following data.

Agriculture & Farming

The Ministry of Agriculture had initially set 2014 as a target date for the nation to become self-sufficient in beef production. Based on ministry data, domestic beef demand hit 397,000 tons last year, but national production only met about 70 percent of this. The remaining 120,000 tons was imported, with most of it coming from New Zealand and Australia, including imports of live cattle.

Although dairy consumption is still relatively low about 76.5 per cent of consumption still has to be imported. Therefore, domestic producers and industries have a big chance to boost their production and meet local needs. According to General Directorate of Livestock, currently, Indonesia is importing pig products of about 3,000 ton per year. Many of these products could be produced in Indonesia.

Mariculture

For example, currently 1.2 million hectares of coastal land area is suitable for shrimp cultivation, only 200,000 hectares of which is used for this purpose, with an average productivity of 1.5 tons per hectare per year. It is estimated that biotechnology could easily increase the productivity to 5 tons per hectare per year.

Many sectors could be developed to transform the potential of the ocean's wealth into Indonesia's advancement and prosperity. These include: capture fisheries, coastal aquaculture and mariculture, fish processing industry, marine biotechnology industry, coastal and marine tourism, sea transportation and ports and other maritime industries and services.

Renewable energy

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry estimate that Indonesia's estimated potential for renewable energy capacity from hydro, geothermal and biomass energy alone could reach more than 150 gw (gigawatts) annually. This estimation does not include other high potential energy resources, such as solar, wind and ocean wave energy. Total utilization of renewable energy in Indonesia in 2007 was less than 5.7 gw.

Tourism

The country earned $7.5 billion from tourism in 2008, up 41 percent from 2007, according to the Minister of Culture and Tourism

The Ministry is seeking to focus on attracting tourists from other Asean countries, with the number of potential tourists in the region estimated at 60 million. Of that amount, Indonesia only received six million tourists according to Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik.