Romys Binekasri, CNBC Indonesia
Saturday, 19/08/2023 10:45 WIB
Photo: Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Instagram @luhut.pandjaitan)
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – are still trying to lobby Tesla boss Elon Musk in San Francisco, United States of America to invest in Indonesia. This is reflected on the Instagram page of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
Quoting his personal Instagram page @luhut.pandjaitan, the two of them discussed approximately two and a half hours to discuss Indonesia’s economic development, as well as Tesla’s current condition.
During the meeting, it was learned that Tesla Inc. decided to postpone its investment in any country. The reason is, Tesla is currently experiencing overproduction.
“Now, regarding the Tesla problem, Tesla is now experiencing overproduction of their 3 million production which absorbed only 1.8 million and they have decided, Elon said he doesn’t want to be like GM who over supply,” said Luhut quoted from the video of his Instagram account, Tuesday (15/8/2023).
Apart from the excess production factor, the current unfavorable global economic conditions are also one of the reasons Tesla chose to delay its investment.
Thus, Tesla’s investment in Mexico is also currently on hold and not producing until the company can understand market conditions.
“So why did that happen, because he sees that the global economy is not good, and the tension between America and China, the Taiwan issue is also very dangerous,” he said.
“And he didn’t want to take the risk, so he and his board decided not to invest anywhere first. I repeat, not to invest anywhere first. As I said earlier, even in Mexico, he delayed the production process there,” he added.
Furthermore, Luhut said that even if Tesla would set up a branch office in Asia, that would only be part of the company’s strategy to develop its business.
“If we hear that in other countries in Asia, they say Tesla is a car sales agent. If we want to make a car sales agent, we can, but that’s not our goal,” said Luhut.
On the other hand, Luhut said, Elon Musk is interested in investing in Indonesia in the sector of providing internet networks through small satellites that he owns through the Starlink business unit.
“Now secondly, he wants Starlink to be able to operate in our rural areas and coincidentally the Minister of Health is also involved, and sees that there are so many of our villages that cannot be reached by the internet,” he said.
“Therefore, we agreed with Elon for Starlink to enter Eastern Indonesia,” he added.
Not only that, according to him, the production cost of Elon Musk’s satellite is cheaper because it uses Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or small satellites. Luhut said that Starlink has around 6,000 small satellites.
“It’s also interesting because the cost is much cheaper. Now this is what made us both agree and we will report to the President about this, the cost is lower, so we can use Starlink because it is low orbit, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and it I have, if I’m not mistaken, 6,000 small low orbit satellites. And I think that’s very good for us,” he explained.
Therefore, Luhut invited Elon Musk to come to Indonesia to sign an agreement on two matters, namely the cooperation plan with Starlink and investment for the manufacture of raw materials for lithium batteries.
“I ask Elon, I tell him if you can come to Indonesia to sign two things. The first is the Starlink status, if we complete all the processes, we are examining it. The second is that he wants to invest in the manufacture of materials for lithium batteries. So he had talked many times with his team and before I returned, his team had agreed not to make an MoU, to go straight to the agreement for them to invest here,” he explained.
“I think the investment is quite large too. We’ll just have to wait for Elon to come here, around the end of September or October this year,” he concluded.
Watch the video below:
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2023-08-19 03:45:19
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