Jakarta. Indonesia is still keeping its fingers crossed for Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn to set up a manufacturing plant in the Southeast Asian country, although Jakarta admits that sealing the investment deal would not be easy.

Foxconn has long been on Indonesia’s wish list of major foreign investors. The government even said that Foxconn has planned to hold its groundbreaking ceremony in early 2023. However, Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told reporters on Monday that Indonesia is still negotiating with Foxconn to this day. Bahlil admitted that Indonesia had hit some roadblocks in the discussions, without going into details about what sort of problems Jakarta needed to tackle.

“To be frank, one of my biggest tasks that I need to do as a minister is regarding the Foxconn investment. The negotiation is still ongoing. … I don’t want to postpone this task. Getting Foxconn to invest [in Indonesia] takes great effort,” Bahlil said in Jakarta.

“I cannot give you the details about what sort of problems we are encountering. But there are one or two things that we need to align with what they have proposed. But pray for us, if God is willing, we will get it [the Foxconn investment],” Bahlil said while adding that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had instructed him to get the job done.

Bahlil also revealed he would soon talk with Foxconn again to persuade them to invest in the country. 

In January 2022, Foxconn inked a memorandum of understanding with Taiwanese battery-swapping firm Gogoro, state-owned Indonesia Battery Corporation (IBC), and miner Indika Energy. As part of the agreement, the four firms will explore an investment partnership for a “comprehensive EV ecosystem”, which also encompasses battery cell production and vehicle manufacturing itself.

Later that year, Bahlil said that Foxconn would begin the construction works for the project at Batang’s industrial complex by early 2023, but time had shown that the plans never really came to fruition. The investment deal is worth $8 billion.