He made this statement to express his disappointment at the 22nd Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), an event which did not promote any locally made vehicles.

During the event, various new cars were displayed by internationally recognized carmakers, ranging from Japan-based companies, such as Honda, Mazda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, to Europe-based companies, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Jokowi said that the government had shown little interest in developing local cars.

He said all parties, from state-owned enterprises to privately owned firms, had to start taking action to advance and promote domestically made cars.

'€œ[Developing Indonesian cars] requires the government'€™s full support. We need to give some room for the domestic car industry to grow in the country. I would like us to have an Indonesian brand car in the future,'€ he said on Friday at City Hall, as quoted by Antara news agency.

He believed that the research capacity of Indonesian scientists was sufficient to develop the required technology for locally made vehicles.

During his tenure as Surakarta mayor, he gave the opportunity for vocational high school students to assemble a car named the Esemka.

He used the car as his official vehicle to visit places in Surakarta. (alz/nfo)(++++)

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