During his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that the business will “look at” production in Indonesia.
The Widodo administration has been attempting for years to attract manufacturing to the nation in order to drive economic development, and Apple is attempting to diversify its supply chains in order to remove the majority of its smartphones and tablets from China.
Following several disruptions to the company’s exports caused by China’s COVID-19 shutdowns, the company started to relocate some of its manufacturing to Vietnam and, more recently, India.
Cook had met with Pham Minh Chinh, the prime minister of Vietnam, the day before in Hanoi. During their meeting, Cook revealed that Apple intended to invest more in Vietnam and spend more on suppliers in the country’s manufacturing base in Southeast Asia.
What comes next?
Apple wants alternatives for manufacturing given the slowing Chinese economy as well as the Chinese government’s ongoing efforts to squeeze out foreign companies and replace them with domestic brands,
said Chris Miller, an associate professor at Tufts University who specializes in geopolitics and technology.
It has already made substantial investments in Vietnam and India, but Miller speculated that it is also considering other South East Asian partners for the expansion of its assembly and manufacturing activities.
Following Apple’s announcement that it will open its fourth Apple Developer Academy in the nation, in Bali, Cook traveled to Indonesia. In 2018, the firm opened up its app development training program in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
Although the corporation claims to have invested 1.6 trillion rupiah ($99 million) in Indonesia’s app developer ecosystem, Apple does not currently have any manufacturing facilities there.
The administration of Widodo has banned the export of raw commodities like nickel and bauxite to force businesses to construct refineries domestically in an effort to capitalize on the nation’s supplies of nickel and other raw resources to attract industry.
Following the Widodo meeting, Cook had a meeting in Jakarta with Prabowo Subianto, the incoming president of Indonesia and the country’s defense minister. He will assume office in October.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will visit Indonesia at the end of April, according to a statement made on Wednesday by Budi Arie Setiadi, the country’s minister of communication and technology.
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