Last year was the year when smartphone manufacturers, both foreign and local, flooded Indonesia with their plan of establishing their factories in the country. Following the trend is Asiafone, which has projected to splash Rp 100 billion to have its factory built at a 3500 square meters area in Pluit, North Jakarta.
Asiafone even has worked on the project since last year to make the factory start operating this year. Herman Zhou, Asiafone’s Director President, stated that he and his team still need to transfer the technology they use for the operation from China to Indonesia as it has yet been available here in the country.
“The transfer of technology process takes long enough since we have to start from zero,” he told JagatReview.
The factory will be integrated to Asiafone’s Head Office in China to simplify the process of supervision, management, and sales. Furthermore, the Chinese manufacturer has prepared two lines to be installed there, with both may produce up to 100.000 units smartphone in a month. The capacity will be gradually improved along with the increasing demand from the market.
By establishing the factory, Asiafone expects to trigger the growth of the industry of supporting components, such as chip, screen, and casing, as well, not to mention the fact that it will also be able to shrink the cost of production.
Asiafone’s decision to build a factory in Indonesia is in line with Indonesian government’s program to regulate the portable devices, particularly those that support 4G/LTE. The regulation states that every 4G/LTE device must possess at least 40% of local components by January 1, 2017.
“We hope that the government may provide us a healthy national industry ecosystem, so that we can gradually reduce our dependency towards foreign products,” Zhou ended.
