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Apple mulls first manufacturing facility in Indonesia after CEO Tim Cook meets Joko Widodo

  • Cook has met the Indonesian president in Jakarta and talked about the possibility of setting up manufacturing in the country
  • Apple has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, although the Southeast Asian nation has a huge, tech-savvy population

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Apple CEO Tim Cook arrived for a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Wednesday. Photo: AP Photo
Apple will look into building a manufacturing facility in Indonesia, its CEO said on Wednesday after meeting President Joko Widodo, who hoped the tech giant would increase its local content by partnering with domestic firms.
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Apple chief executive Tim Cook arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam. He met Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, and will inaugurate its fourth developer academy on the island of Bali.

“We talked about the president’s desire to see manufacturing in the country, and it is something that we will look at,” Cook told reporters after the meeting.

Apple has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, but since 2018 it has been setting up app developer academies, which including the new academy have a total cost of 1.6 trillion rupiah (US$99 million).

Apple CEO Tim Cook with Indonesia’s Minister of industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, right, and Minister of Communication and Information Technology Budi Arie Setiadi, left. Photo: AP Photo
Apple CEO Tim Cook with Indonesia’s Minister of industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, right, and Minister of Communication and Information Technology Budi Arie Setiadi, left. Photo: AP Photo

Indonesia’s industry minister, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, who also attended the meeting, told reporters that if Apple decided to build manufacturing facility in Indonesia, it would have the capacity to produce for export.

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