Holiday Ayo - Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Rosan Roeslani opened up about the reasons why Elon Musk's electric vehicle (EV) company, Tesla, did not enter Indonesia. 

Rosan said that Tesla chose to shift its plans to build an electric car factory to another country. This is because Indonesian industry has not yet fully used new, renewable energy (EBT). Many still use fossil fuels such as gasoline and coal. 

“Incidentally, I was directly involved in discussions with Tesla. They diverted investment not to us, one of which was that they said we were an EV car, of course everyone wanted their terms to be clean," said Rosan, quoted from detik.com, Tuesday (3/9). 

“But if they enter our industrial area, energy is still fossil fuel, energy like coal is not in line with their vision," he continued. 

According to him, this is a big homework assignment for Indonesia, because the world globally has paid more attention to sustainability through the use of clean energy.

This is one of the considerations for investors to come in and invest their money. 

“We cannot deny that in the future it has to be like that. We apologize, we are a bit behind. I give the example of a company in Singapore, Sembcorp. He already has 13 in Vietnam, an eco-zone in Vietnam. He will open another 18, 2. In the next 3 months, most of the energy will be 70% clean, so investment in Vietnam will be stronger," he said.

Apart from that, he is also of the view that this deficiency means that Indonesia has not been able to take optimal advantage of the opportunity for tensions between the United States (US) and China. 

In this momentum, many foreign investors shifted their investments to developing countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. 

“We are one of the fans but not the biggest, there are still Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, which enjoy more investor movement to these countries. If we look deeper, why? One of them is in terms of ease of doing business, licensing, legal certainty, terms. They are the rule of law, one of our PRs," he said. 

Responding to this condition, the Ministry of Investment/BKPM will take further steps through in-depth identification and analysis.

His party will also explore the conditions of 6 Special Economic Zones (KEK) which are not running well.

As additional information, previously it was reported that Tesla would enter Indonesia to build a factory. This news has been heard since 2023. 

However, at the

beginning of this year, there was news that Elon Musk had postponed the investment process due to unstable global economic conditions. 

The news of Tesla's investment, which was full of uncertainty, was punctuated by news of the entry of the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Build Your Dreams (BYD), into Indonesia last February. 

The electric car giant from China will enter Indonesia and is also interested in building a factory. 

“Regarding Tesla, we already have (collaboration) with BYD. BYD is also good, not bad," said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, met at the Coordinating Ministry for Marves Office, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (7/2).