Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s years-long courtship of Elon Musk may have finally borne fruit. The Southeast Asian leader, popularly known as Jokowi, openly urged the Tesla CEO to invest in the country’s fledgling electric vehicle sector, even making personal visit see a billionaire in Texas in 2022.
Musk made his first visit to Indonesia since Jokowi’s offensive. Over the weekend, the billionaire headed to the resort island of Bali—not for Tesla, but for one of his other companies: SpaceX. On Sunday Musk open SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service in Indonesia, saying that he was “Excited to provide connectivity to places with low connectivity.”
Earlier this month, Starlink received a license to operate in Indonesia. It is the third Southeast Asian country to approve satellite internet service, following the Philippines in 2022 and Malaysia last year.
Establishing Internet connectivity in remote areas of Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago with some 17,000 islands, is no easy task. More than 20% of Indonesians are still no internet accessin accordance with Indonesian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Budi Arie Setiadi.
Going beyond Starlink?
On Sunday Musk said It is “highly likely” that his other companies will invest in Indonesia, without disclosing details.
Jokowi has for years tried to persuade Musk and Tesla to invest in Indonesia by touting the country’s nickel industry. Indonesia has the world’s largest reserves of nickel, a key material for both stainless steel and some types of electric vehicle batteries.
The Indonesian government has banned the export of nickel ore to encourage investment in local nickel processing and refining, but so far most foreign investment has come from Chinese and South Korean companies.
However, Indonesia’s bet on nickel is risky. Electric vehicle makers are starting to switch to batteries that don’t use nickel, and electric vehicle sales are slowing after booming in recent years.
Jokowi, who will leave office in October, has tried to attract foreign investment and move Indonesia up the global value chain since taking office in October 2014. Electric vehicle makers such as China’s BYD and Vietnam’s VinFast have done this. promised to build production capacity in the country.
It’s not just electric vehicle companies that are thinking about this Southeast Asian country. Microsoft is pledging to invest $1.7 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud computing services and provide artificial intelligence skills training to 840,000 Indonesians. Apple CEO Tim Cook also said he would “take a closer look” at Indonesian manufacturing after meeting with Jokowi earlier this year.
Jokowi has had less success in an attempt to attract foreign investment for its ambitious plans to move Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, a city still under construction on the island of Borneo. Starlink will also test its internet services in Nusantara. in accordance with state media “Antara”.
Musk expected meet Jokowi, who missed the Starlink launch, on Monday at the 10th World Water Forum in Bali.