US-based tech giant Apple still cannot sell its iPhone 16 in Indonesia despite striking a deal to build a local production facility there, as it has not met domestic content rules, the industry minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Last year, it was reported that Indonesia banned iPhone 16 sales after Apple failed to meet requirements that smartphones sold domestically should comprise at least 35 percent locally made parts.

According to Reuters, Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Apple had struck a deal to build a facility producing its Airtag tracking device on Indonesia’s Batam island, close to Singapore, but that still would not count as a locally made iPhone part.

“There is no basis for the ministry to issue a local content certification as a way for Apple to have the permission to sell iPhone 16 because (the facility) has no direct relations,” he said, adding the ministry would only count phone components.

Indonesia’s investment minister said late on Tuesday the factory would be worth $1 billion and that it would start operations next year.

Agus, who held two days of meetings with Apple’s vice president of global government affairs Nick Ammann, said Apple had proposed “innovative investment” which Indonesia had countered.

Apple has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, a country of about 280 million people, but has since 2018 set up application developer academies.

According to a report in April, Apple announced it will open Indonesia’s fourth Apple Developer Academy in Bali, expanding on its investment to increase opportunities for developers, students, and entrepreneurs looking to embark on careers in the region’s growing iOS app economy.

Since Indonesia’s first Apple Developer Academy launched in Jakarta in 2018, Apple has opened academies in Surabaya and Batam, and more than 2,000 aspiring developers have completed the program.

#AppleIndonesia #iPhone16 #LocalContentRules #TechInvestment #Airtag