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JAKARTA (Reuters): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced that it has approved a US$500 million loan for Indonesia to help improve access to financial services for small businesses, rural populations and other vulnerable groups.
The new loan would support Indonesia's ongoing reforms in financial inclusion, the ADB said in a statement.
In another development, Tech giant Apple plans to invest US$1 billion in a manufacturing plant in Indonesia that produces components for smartphones and other products, Indonesia's investment minister said on Thursday.
In October, Indonesia banned sales of the iPhone 16 because it said Apple had not adhered to rules that require phones sold domestically to have at least 40% locally made parts. And this week, the government said it would increase the local content requirement.
Investment minister Rosan Roeslani told reporters that details of the planned investment were still being ironed out, but when asked confirmed it was the expected $1 billion investment he had flagged earlier this week.
"We will discuss with them some more ... our hope is for everything to be announced in the next week after receiving a written commitment from them," he said.
Last week, the government had rejected a $100 million investment proposal from Apple to build an accessory and component plant as not enough to reverse the iPhone 16 ban.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple currently has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, a country of about 280 million people, but since 2018 it has set up application developer academies.
Indonesia considers that strategy an attempt to meet local content requirements for the sale of older iPhone models.
Companies typically increase the local composition through local partnerships or by sourcing parts domestically. - Reuters
