Indonesian Government to Provide Incentive for Apple Investment

Jakarta –Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan conveyed Indonesian government's readiness to provide incentives to attract investment from Apple to what India and Thailand offered.

"If (Apple) gets incentive facilities like in India and Thailand, we (Indonesia) can also provide the same," the Minister stated on his official Instagram account @luhut.pandjaitan on Thursday.

Minister Pandjaitan highlighted that one of the incentives that can be offered by the Indonesian government to Apple is the ease on import duties on Apple components.

"They have goods that we have not been able to produce, and we need them to produce other goods. Thus, why do we need to impose tax on them?" the Minister remarked.

According to the minister, Indonesia should emulate Thailand and India that had tweaked their domestic regulations to attract Apple's investment.

"If our regulations hinder (investment), we do have to change it," Minister Pandjaitan emphasized.

Minister Pandjaitan made this statement related to a meeting between President Joko Widodo and Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Jakarta Presidential Palace on Wednesday (April 17).

He further said that both spoke about strategic plans, including Apple's expansion plans and Indonesia's integration into the global supply chain.

"The meeting was very productive because he just realized that Indonesia is a very potential country, with its population of 282 million people, stable economic growth, and good macroeconomy," the Minister explained.

Tim Cook said Indonesia is one of Apple's investment targets, he added.

"The president ordered me to follow up on all of this. We will immediately work on this, and I hope in the future, we will hold a technical meeting with the Apple team," the Minister concluded.

As more information, Apple has invested IDR1,6 trillion in the Apple Development Academy, which is a digital talent training program for developing Apple applications.

The program has already been implemented at four locations, namely BSD City, Surabaya, Batam, and most recently in Bali.