Jakarta – Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Panjaitan has said the government will be making a deal with Tesla very soon as negotiations have entered their final stage of wrapping up a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with the United States' electric carmaker.

"Tesla and us still have an NDA agreement [to discuss], maybe this week or next we'll have a teleconference," Luhut said at his office on Thursday, as quoted by Kompas.com.

Luhut also made assurances that a deal with Tesla was within reach and that it could materialize very soon.

The talks were "now approaching the final stage, and we're hoping that can happen", said the senior minister.

Earlier this week, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo told Reuters he was confident that Tesla would finalize its investment in a production facility in the country, as the government had offered the US carmaker incentives ranging from tax breaks to a nickel mining concession.

Indonesia has been wooing Tesla since 2020 to invest in the country's electric vehicle (EV) and electric vehicle battery (EVB) manufacturing industry, seeking to leverage its rich reserves of nickel ore for use in domestic EVB production.

Jokowi has twice held talks with Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to try and secure a deal, according to Reuters, once while meeting Musk in person last year at the billionaire entrepreneur's SpaceX facility in Texas and the second via a telephone call.

"I said to him that if you invest in Indonesia, I will give [you] a nickel concession," Jokowi said.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2023/02/03/indonesia-finalizing-teslas-ev-deal-luhut.htm