Toyota Announces Rp 26 Trillion Indonesian Investment Plan

Arientha Primanita

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. revealed on Saturday a mammoth plan to invest Rp 26 trillion ($2.7 billion) in Indonesia over the next four years.

The initative was announced after a meeting between Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and executives from Toyota Motor Corp., including president and CEO Akio Toyoda and Koichi Ina, the president of Daihatsu Motor Corp., a subsidiary of Toyota.

“They discussed a huge investment plan, totaling Rp 26 trillion for the next three or four years, starting in 2013,” Johny Darmawan, the president director of Toyota’s local subsidiary, Toyota Astra Motor, said after the meeting at the presidential office in Jakarta on Saturday.

Johny said the amount was equal to Toyota’s total investment in Indonesia over the past 40 years.

He explained that the robust investment plan was set to include an expansion of Toyota’s local components and spare parts industries.

“Toyoda came here not only to talk about how to make cars, but also how to turn suppliers into manufacturers,” Johny said.

“The president [Yudhoyono] said he hoped Toyota would invest from the upstream to downstream industry,” he added.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Hatta Rajasa, who later joined the meeting, said Toyota wanted to make Indonesia a production base and that the Indonesian government welcomed the plan.

Industry Minister M. S. Hidayat, meanwhile, said Toyota was targeting to export 30 percent of its Indonesian production.

“We’re okay with that, and will do it step by step. At the moment, the figure has reached 15 percent,” Hidayat said.

BeritaSatu/JG