JAKARTA (Reuters) -South Korea’s Hyundai Motor is interested in participating in Indonesia’s plan to develop its own national car, Indonesia’s economic ministry said on Friday.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said on October 20 that Indonesia was planning to fully manufacture its own national car in the next three years, with a budget already allocated and land prepared for the factories.
Indonesian Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said in a statement the South Korean automaker had expressed “strong interest” in participating during talks between himself and Hyundai Motor Group President Sung Kim on Thursday in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Airlangga provided no details and Hyundai Motor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hyundai Motor is the world No.3 automaker by sales along with its affiliate Kia Corp. It already operates an auto manufacturing plant in the Indonesian province of West Java.
Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution last year inaugurated Indonesia’s first battery cell production plant for electric vehicles, with an annual capacity of 10 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery cells.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Stanley Widianto; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Stephen Coates)
