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President Jokowi hosts top Hyundai execs amid plans for production plant
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Hyundai Motor sedans are assembled at a factory of the carmaker in Asan, about 100 kilometers south of Seoul. (Reuters/Lee Jae-Won)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hosted a meeting with executives of South Korean automaker Hyundai at Merdeka Palace on Thursday following the company's plan to invest in a production plant.
Talks of the plan have been taking place within Indonesia’s automotive industry since last year, with Hyundai reportedly setting aside over US$800 million to build a factory by the end of this year.
"At the moment, Hyundai is surveying at some industrial estates around West Java, such as in Karawang, Purwakarta and Subang [but] the investment value is still being discussed," Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who accompanied the President in the meeting, said in a press statement.
Jokowi responded positively to the plan, with Hyundai hoping that 40 percent of its future production becomes export commodities, Airlangga said.
Hyundai is slated to begin production by 2021 with an installed production capacity of 250,000 cars per year. It will employ around 3,500 people. For domestic production, it will focus on the manufacturing of SUVs, MPVs, hatchbacks and sedans.
"Hyundai has reiterated its commitment to kick off investments in Indonesia as soon as possible, because it believes [the country] is the right place for its production base for both the domestic and export market," Airlangga added.
In the meeting with the top Hyundai executives, Jokowi was accompanied by Airlangga, Coordinating Investment Board (BKPM) head Thomas Lembong and Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motors was represented by executive vice chairman Chung Eui-Sun, president Kong Young-Woon, executive VP Park Hong-Jae and senior VP Lee Young-Tack.
"We hope our expansion to the Indonesian market will help [the development] of automotive policies [in] Industry 4.0," Chung said, referring to the sector as one of the five priority sectors in the Making Indonesia 4.0 road map.
