Indonesia’s presidential candidates see the need to expand the local cell phone manufacturing industry amid rising imports of the devices in past years, offering their different approaches to growing the local industry during the final election debate on Sunday.

It began when the three presidential candidates faced a question from panelists pointing out that Indonesia had imported a lot of cell phones in the past year, whereas the cost of building a factory to produce the devices locally would be very small when compared with the total value of shipments coming to the country.

According to International Trade Center data, Indonesia’s cell phone imports are on the rise, reaching a value of $6.4 billion in 2022, with more than 71 percent coming from China. These imports increased from $5.6 billion in 2019.

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, the current defense minister, blamed the high imports on the lack of domestic cell phone factories and political will to build one in the country.

In a bid to curtail imports, Prabowo, who is running with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, promised to streamline the process of constructing new factories and to address domestic talent challenges.

“I’m always solution-oriented. If it takes only half a trillion [rupiah, US$32 million] to build a factory and political will is the requirement, then let’s just build it,” Prabowo said.

Read also: Candidates lower tension in final debate

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