Indonesia’s push to become an EV hub faces new challenges, as relaxed import rules have seen the domestic market flooded with foreign-made cars, causing sharp declines in output from local manufacturers.

While the transport minister has urged local airliners to look at buying rejected Boeing jets as an opportunity for fleet expansion, industry association INACA has called for a collected, practical stance in view of regulatory, certification and other established processes.

Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto, the head of delegation, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have been in the United States since last week negotiating the proposed 32 percent tariffs the US wants to impose on Indonesia. These tariffs have been put on hold for 90 days.

President Donald Trump has defied international norms on the nascent field of deep-sea mining, signing an executive order Thursday expanding the practice for rare earth minerals in domestic and international waters.

The communist nation's first homegrown car manufacturer is aiming to compete with global EV giants such as Tesla but has struggled to break into the international market. 

Asian stock markets headed for a second straight week of gains on Friday and the dollar for its first weekly rise in more than a month as investors have welcomed an apparent softening of the White House stance on China, despite no signal of detente.

The move came after the country’s stock market and currency emerged as one of Asia’s worst-performing this year amid uncertainties due to the US' wide-sweeping tariffs and concerns over the country’s fiscal policy.

Investment grew 2.7 percent in the first quarter and was up 16 percent on the year yet came in just shy of a quarter of the full-year target.

The announcement comes just days after the government rejected a request from Malaysia to import rice from Indonesia, citing the need to safeguard domestic supply.

The government is holding onto its target for 5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year despite the International Monetary Fund revising down its projection for Indonesia’s economy in a recent update.

"The quarter has been impacted by significant market fluctuations. Our equity investments had a negative return, largely driven by the tech sector," Nicolai Tangen, head of the Norwegian sovereign fund, said in a statement.

The Chinese investor has cited weak global demand and shifting market dynamics as reasons for the cutback, which comes on the heels of LG's announced withdrawal from a broad EVB supply chain project for similar reasons.

US President Donald Trump this month threatened massive 46 percent levies on Vietnam, with Washington accusing the country of facilitating Chinese exports to the United States and allowing Beijing to get around tariffs.

China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt is replacing South Korea's LG Energy Solution as a strategic investor in a multibillion-dollar project to build an electric vehicle battery joint venture in Indonesia, officials said on Wednesday.

In a televised interview with CNBC, Boeing Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said Chinese customers had "stopped taking delivery of aircraft due to the tariff environment," adding that if the halt continued, the aviation giant would soon market the jets to other carriers.

South Korea's economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter as exports and consumption stalled amid fears over the impact of Washington's aggressive tariffs, fanning expectations of more interest rate cuts.

The mobile market in Indonesia has been trimmed to just three major players as the XLSmart merger is completed, prompting consumers to question how fewer players in the market might affect prices and service quality.

Bank Indonesia (BI) has decided to keep its key interest rates in place as the rupiah remains weak, and noted that mounting global pressure stemming from trade disruption threatens Indonesia’s economic growth.

The de-escalation drew an immediate thumbs up from Wall Street, as equity index futures jumped by nearly 2 percent on the resumption of trading on Tuesday evening.

Since Trump began a second term in January, he has unleashed a tit-for-tat trade battle with Beijing that has seen US levies on many Chinese goods reach 145 percent.

Prabowo told reporters that Indonesia is a big country with a bright future and there would be new investment to take the place of the South Korean company in the electric vehicle battery ecosystem.

Eddy cautioned that such illicit activities, carried out under the guise of CSOs, commonly referred to locally as ormas (mass organizations), would erode Indonesia’s investment climate and could drive investors away.

The firm produces more than a third of all electric vehicle (EV) batteries sold worldwide, working with major brands including Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen.

Public Housing and Settlements Minister Fahri Hamzah said the backlog, which measures the gap between home demand and existing ownership, is estimated to have increased to 15 million from the previous 9.9 million to 12 million units in the past two years.  

Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said Indonesia cannot export rice to Malaysia to maintain domestic rice stocks.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said on Tuesday that the agency plans to remove synthetic food dyes from the US food supply by revoking authorizations of some and working with industry to voluntarily remove others.

The return of aggressive protectionism under Trump 2.0 presents an opportunity for Indonesia to increase its competitiveness and role in the global trade landscape, but this will require more investment and effort at home, as well as political will.