Jakarta. An executive of US tech giant Apple said Tuesday that he had just had some great talks with the Industry Ministry after Indonesia banned iPhone 16 sales.

The Southeast Asian country has barred the California-based tech giant from selling its latest smartphone model in the country. The government will only let Apple legally sell its iPhone 16 in Indonesia if the company has at least 35 percent of its product components locally sourced.

Apple has previously proposed to make some investments. Most recently, the company vowed to invest $1 billion with reports saying that it includes a plan to set up a local factory for AirTag, a device that helps track lost items. 

After not much substantial progress, Nick Ammann -- the vice president of global government affairs at Apple -- flew to Jakarta to meet Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita. Agus only spent about 30 minutes or so with the Apple top brass. He let his team handle the rest of the discussions that day. Ammann left the ministerial building at around 5.45 p.m. but only made a brief comment on the talks.

“[It was a] great discussion, great discussion,” Ammann told the press in Jakarta on Tuesday. 

Agus -- who had left the area earlier -- said Indonesia refused to set a deadline for Apple to invest in the country, saying that the smartphone maker should take its time to make sure that its investment could create as many jobs.

“We don’t set a time frame on [Apple’s investment]. We can reach a done deal today, tonight, tomorrow, next week, or even next month. We might not have a deadline, but all that matters to us is the substance [of the investment],” Agus told reporters after heading out of the negotiations.

Agus commented on Apple’s $1 billion investment pledge, saying that it is “insufficient”. To Indonesia, Apple has to meet four of the so-called “fairness principles” that Jakarta has set. 

“First, we want to see how big Apple's investments are in other countries, let’s say Vietnam and India. Second, how much has Apple’s competitors such as Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei invested in Indonesia?” Agus said.

Indonesia will take into account the added value that the Apple investment would bring. The minister added: “Last but not least, but most importantly, [we want to see] how big is the job creation from Apple’s investment.”

Agus said that his side had received the official investment proposal on Monday. He, however, refused to reveal the proposed investment figures in the freshly submitted document.

“Well, let’s just pray that we will have some good news,” Agus said before getting inside his car.

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