Jakarta –
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed plans for a meeting with Tesla boss Elon Musk in October. Then, what will be discussed?
Luhut said that his meeting with one of the richest people in the world was related to cooperation with Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite. As for Starlink, it is planned to cooperate with PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk (Persero) in providing internet access.
“I think he (Elon Musk) will be here, in October,” he said, at the Bloomberg CEO Forum, at the Fairmont Hotel, Jakarta, Wednesday (6/9/2023).
When confirmed further after the event, Luhut emphasized again that Elon Musk’s purpose in coming was related to the Starlink collaboration. Meanwhile for Tesla itself, it has decided not to invest in any country in building a factory.
“To check Starlink (October). Tesla, as I said earlier, they will not invest anywhere, not only in Indonesia. So if you say in Malaysia, they are only open to sell Tesla cars,” he explained.
However, when asked further about whether Tesla would cancel its cooperation with Indonesia, Luhut did not think so.
“Not really, he still sees Indonesia as his priority,” he concluded.
As additional information, Tesla was previously reported to be delaying its investments worldwide, including Indonesia. Luhut said global economic conditions were the main problem.
Luhut said that during a face-to-face meeting in the United States, Elon Musk admitted that he did not want to go bankrupt because of an excess stock of cars. This has happened to General Motors and Elon Musk doesn’t want it to happen to Tesla. Until now, Luhut explained, out of a total of 3 million Tesla electric cars, there are still 1.2 million left that have not been sold and purchased.
“Elon said he doesn’t want to be like General Motors, going bankrupt because of oversupply, so his investment in Mexico will also be put on hold before they start producing until they understand this market,” Luhut said in a video upload on his official Instagram account @luhut.pandjaitan, Monday ( 14/8/2023).
Meanwhile, news is blowing that there will be another collaboration that Indonesia is exploring with Elon Musk, namely through Starlink. Starlink has collaborated with Telkomsat to turn the internet satellite into the backhaul of Telkom’s subsidiary services. The scheme is business to business (B2B), not business to consumer (B2C).
During the meeting, Luhut also received confirmation from Elon Musk regarding cooperation in providing internet access for eastern Indonesia via Starlink. Luhut explained that Starlink has thousands of small low earth orbit satellites that can be used to provide internet access to remote areas.
“He wanted Starlink to be able to operate in our rural areas, and coincidentally the Minister of Health also came with me too and saw that many of our villages cannot be reached by the internet. Therefore we also agreed with Elon for Starlink to enter eastern Indonesia. ,” said Luhut.
See also Video ‘Luhut on Tesla Investment Plans in RI: They’re Interested, We’re Interested’:
(shc/the)
2023-09-06 04:00:40
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