Jakarta. When it comes to the Southeast Asian region, the American electronics producer Apple favors getting the materials for its products from other ASEAN members rather than Indonesia, according to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Jokowi was speaking at the launching ceremony of a device testing facility in Depok on Tuesday. The outgoing president talked about his recent meetings with the bosses of tech giants, namely Apple’s Tim Cook and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Jokowi said his meeting with Cook, however, revealed some harrowing facts about Indonesia’s technology industry.

“Apple has 320 suppliers across the globe, but only two of them are based in Indonesia. And Apple has 17 suppliers in the Philippines, while 19 others are in Malaysia,” Jokowi said. 

Jokowi then claimed that 24 of Apple’s suppliers were based in Thailand. Vietnam had a whopping 72 Apple suppliers based in the country. According to Jokowi, the number of suppliers is not proportionate to Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP) share in the ASEAN region. 

“Our GDP is the largest in ASEAN. Indonesia drives 46 percent of ASEAN’s GDP, but we only have two suppliers. … Why are you [the audience] quiet? Are you surprised? How disappointing, but we have to catch up, and this mammoth-sized task is something we have to deal with. … We need to boost the skills of our local tech industries," Jokowi said.

Every year, Apple releases a list of where it obtains the materials for its products. The supplier list covers 98 percent of Apple’s direct spending for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of its products worldwide. 

The 2023 edition showed that Apple had Yageo Corporation, whose manufacturing took place in Batam’s Muka Kuning, as its sole Indonesia-based supplier. Some suppliers manufacturing for Apple in Malaysia include Broadcom Limited, Alps Alpine Company Limited, and Intel Corporation.

According to the 2021 supplier list, Apple had two suppliers in Indonesia, namely Panasonic Corporation in West Java and Pegatron Corporation in Riau Islands. Both companies did their manufacturing in other countries as well, including Japan and China.