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ajor smartphone manufacturers have welcomed the government'€™s new regulation on the mandatory use of local components in 4G smartphones distributed in Indonesia.

Smartphone makers such as Samsung, Apple'€™s iPhone, Xiaomi and Polytron said they would support the new regulation requiring 4G smartphone manufacturers to use at least 30 percent local content by 2017, a lower level than that previously planned of 40 percent.

The regulation, which was signed by the communications and information minister, the trade minister and the industry minister, requires all smartphone brands to have at least 30 percent local components by January 2017 and 40 percent for base transceiver stations (BTS).

Samsung Electronics Indonesia vice president Lee Kang Hyun said on Monday he was upbeat that his firm would reach the required quota as most of its 4G smartphones traded in Indonesia already had above 20 percent local content.

Last month, Samsung inaugurated a factory in Bekasi, West Java, with total capacity of around 1.5 million phones and tablets per year.

Hyun said that the government should also focus on a potentially rampant smartphone black market as stringent rules on local content might stimulate greater attempts at smuggling by parties that could not meet the requirement.

The Communications and Information Ministry has estimated that the total value of foreign smartphones sold in Indonesia might have reached between US$5 billion and $6 billion last year.

However, the value of smartphones legally imported reached only $3.5 billion.

'€œThere has to be thorough supervision, especially on excise and customs for imported smartphones,'€ Hyun told The Jakarta Post.

US brand iPhone, which previously opposed the government'€™s plan to impose the local content regulation, eventually stated that it would comply with the regulation, according to the Industry Ministry.

'€œThey [Apple Inc.] asked how to meet the local content requirement. They haven'€™t made any follow-up plans, but they'€™ll try to comply with the rules,'€ the ministry said in a statement published on its website.

The US trade representative previously raised concerns that the '€œmade in Indonesia'€ regulation would block the expansion of tech giants such as Apple in the country where the use of smartphones has yet to truly take off.

Total imported iPhones to the country hit 321,015 units with a total value of $157 million last year, far below that of Samsung with 13 million units worth $1.42 billion last year, according to data from the Industry Ministry.

PT Hartono Istana Teknologi, the brand holder of Polytron, meanwhile, hoped that the enactment of the new regulation would help boost sales of its 4G smartphones.

Santo Kadarusman, the public relations and marketing event manager of Hartono Istana Teknologi, said that his firm would add a new production line this month to bring total annual capacity to 3.6 million units in anticipation of surging demand for Polytron'€™s 4G phones.

Chinese brand Xiaomi, meanwhile, stated that it was still waiting for clarity on the exact mechanics of the regulation and that it would work closely with the Indonesian government.

'€œTo this extent, we'€™ve already started talks with partners to explore the possibility of local assembly in order to meet the local content quota for 4G smartphones,'€ said Xiaomi general manager for Southeast Asia, Steve Vickers.