Apple to open first retail store in Indonesia, resume direct online sales

Apple Store Indonesia

Apple is finally opening its first retail outlet in Indonesia, a new report out Tuesday confirmed. The brick-and-mortar store will be locatedĀ in the capital city, Jakarta. Additionally, the Cupertino firm will boost its retail presence in the 250 million people country by enabling direct online seals via the Indonesia online web store. Apple on December 3, 2012 started selling the iPhone 5 in Indonesia and more than fifty other markets. The following day, the company also launched its iTunes movies and music store in 56 new countries, including Indonesia

The Next Web passed along a report by NZWeek which points at Apple’sĀ application letter to Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) that confirms its retail plans.

ChairmanĀ Chatib Basri said Ā BKPM has approved Apple’s application and plans to open the new Jakarta store, an Ā investment worth around two to three million U.S. dollars.

BKPM also gave Apple permission to begin selling its products direct to consumers via the online store. The iPhone maker was selling its products in Indonesia from 2008 to 2010, butĀ shipping irregularities forced it to shut it down.

Apple’s contract manufacturer Foxconn is also an investor in Indonesia.

It was confirmed last summer that Foxconn wants to break ground on a new manufacturing facility in Indonesia, an estimated $1 billion investment. It will addĀ approximately one million new jobs in the region where the average monthly wage is a hundred bucks a month.

We don’t know whether this plant is to help Foxconn churn out more iDevices. Foxconn’s other manufacturing sites are found in Chinaā€™s Chengdu province and Brazil, where some of iPad and iPhone production could move in the future.

The Next Web points that Foxconn was also planning toĀ invest as much as $10 billion to “yield a Silicon Valley-style tech hub”, but these plans may have been halted after Foxconn could not agree terms with local officials.