Indonesian president Joko Widodo cancels dinner date with Apple’s Tim Cook over haze crisis

Indonesian president Joko Widodo is currently on his first state visit to the US. It wasn’t supposed to be all politics: For October 28, Widodo had scheduled a whole day of meetings with tech companies in Silicon Valley. He was supposed to meet with Google executives, the day culminating in a dinner with Apple’s Tim Cook, CNN reported.

But now, according to Rappler, that part of the trip is off. President Widodo is returning to Indonesia earlier than expected to deal with the regional haze crisis.

Whether other government representatives will continue the trip and take meetings in lieu of the president is unclear. Widodo, on his Silicon Valley tour, was supposed to be accompanied by an entourage consisting of tech minister Rudiantara as well as the founders of four prominent Indonesian startups: William Tanuwijaya of Tokopedia, Andrew Darwis of Kaskus, Ferry Unardi of Traveloka, and Nadiem Makarim of Go-Jek, according to Indonesian daily Kompas.

Tech in Asia has reached out to the trip’s organizing committee and will update the story as it happens.

What was at stake?

At Google, Widodo had plans to discuss how the company and the Indonesian government can collaborate to bring internet to remote parts of Indonesia: specifically Project Loon, Google’s attempt to bring about uninterrupted connectivity at low cost, everywhere, by launching electronics-carrying balloons into the stratosphere.

The Indonesian president’s conversation with Tim Cook was likely to be less visionary, as there are several topics to broach which affect Apple’s business in one of the most important global markets for mobile phones.

Apple has not been pleased with Indonesia’s recent introduction of a regulation that stipulates all 4G LTE devices sold in the archipelago need to contain 30 percent “local content” by January 2017.

Accoding to CNN, Cook and Widodo would have discussed Apple’s plans to invest in R&D centers in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Surakarta – this would be a step forward by Apple to comply with Indonesia’s new law.

See:“Local Content Rule” for smartphones in Indonesia is now officialIn an earlier article about the impending meeting between Cook and Widodo, the Straits Times suggested the goal of conversation could be to encourage Apple’s investment in sustainable tin mines on the Indonesian islands of Bangka and Belitung.

Now that the meeting is canceled, Widodo will have to seek other ways to address another huge environmental problem in Indonesia, the tin mining industry. Tin mining in Indonesia is notorious for its corrupt and destructive practices, often involving illegal work.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi successfully toured Silicon Valley in September, where he met Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk, among others. Modi flew home with a commitment by chipmaker Qualcomm to pour US$150 million into a new venture fund for Indian startups.

See:Indian PM scores in Silicon Valley: Qualcomm announces $150M fund for startups in India