BlackBerry Not Worried About Indonesia’s Component Ruling

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BlackBerry has been using local parts in all its devices, so it is not worried about the latest ruling from the Indonesian government, said Steve Zipperstein, BlackBerry’s chief legal officer. According to the government’s new plan, all smartphone manufacturers are required to use at least 30% locally made components in all their devices.

BlackBerry already meets the mandate

Zipperstein claims that BlackBerry is already “ahead of the curve” as it has been using local components in its devices since 2008. The local Indonesian products used in BlackBerry devices are the smartphones batteries manufactured in a Batam factory and the headset ear buds manufactured in Cibubur, West Java.

The Indonesian government wants to promote the country’s growing cell phone manufacturing sector, so lawmakers made it mandatory for all 4G smartphone manufacturers to use a minimum of 30% local components by 2017. The local components can be in the form of hardware, software or design.

On Tuesday, in the interview with The Jakarta Post, Zipperstein said BlackBerry has already exceeded all the requirements, and in the process, “jobs are being created and the point of the law itself is to provide economic opportunities [to Indonesians]. Therefore, we have been doing that and we will continue to do so in the future.”

Contributions beyond production

Zipperstein informed the media outlet that BlackBerry runs a Global Application Vetting Center in Denpasar, Bali. More than 100,000 applications found on BlackBerry’s World App Store have been tested, developed and processed at this center since 2011. Indonesians have developed 5,000 apps for BlackBerry 10. The global app vetting process was completed with support from 1,500 Indonesian developers.

Cyber-security is a major issue faced by Indonesia currently, said Zipperstein. And this is another area in which the Canadian firm is helping the government. BlackBerry recently acquired three multi-platform software security firms and is in the process of acquiring a fourth. These acquisitions will further boost the company’s ability to offer security, thus helping the government develop its cyber-defenses, said Zipperstein.

Kusum Lienandjaja, BlackBerry Indonesia’s government relations director, informed The Jakarta Post that they run an innovation center in Bandung where it has provided engineering scholarships to the Bandung Institute of Technology, thus extending its contributions to Indonesia beyond production.

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