Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo recently tried to convince his Emirati counterpart Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) to have Abu Dhabi invest in nickel-rich Indonesia’s electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem.

The EV sector -- alongside Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara-- has become a common theme in Jokowi’s business pitches to world leaders. Most recently, Jokowi tried to promote Indonesia’s EV ecosystem sector to MBZ when the former made a state visit to Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi.

“The [leaders’ tête-à-tête or private meeting] mainly focused on investment partnership, among others on the cooperation regarding the nickel industry development. Indonesia holds huge nickel reserves, and our country has developed the metal’s domestic processing ecosystem, namely batteries and EVs,” Retno said in a press statement on Wednesday.

“For this reason, President Jokowi asked the UAE to invest in Indonesia’s EV sector, be it in the upstream or downstream operations,” Retno said.

Retno did not say whether the UAE was open to the idea of investing in Indonesia’s EV ecosystem. 

Indonesia has stopped exporting unprocessed nickel in favor of processing the metal domestically. By having such a ban in place, the government is hoping that foreign businesses will set up their factories in Indonesia. According to the 2024 US Geological Survey report, Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves, totaling 55 million metric tons. 

Indonesia earlier this month launched Southeast Asia’s first and largest EV battery cell plant in West Java’s Karawang. This project belongs to HLI Green Power: the joint venture established by South Korean automaker Hyundai, Seoul-based battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, and local firm Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC). Hyundai is also already producing its EV model Ioniq 5 in its Cikarang manufacturing plant.

The government data showed that the UAE was still far from being Indonesia’s top foreign investor. In the first quarter of 2024, Emirati investments in Indonesia totaled $4.1 million. This makes the UAE Indonesia’s 40th largest source of foreign direct investment in that period.