The Indonesian government may conduct a field inspection of BYD’s assembly plant in Subang, West Java, following a dispute over demands for employment opportunities for local residents, Jakarta Globe has reported.
Resolving the issue would require a scope of coordination that goes beyond the country’s ministry of industry, and the Indonesian government could visit the BYD plant to help reconcile the interests of the carmaker with those of the surrounding community, said Indonesian industry minister Muhammad Sarmuji.
“Of course, resolving this issue is not solely the responsibility of the industry ministry. We will look into it, and if necessary, we will visit the site with other government agencies,” Sarmuji said.
The dispute appeared to arise from what the local residents believe to be insufficient employment opportunities, while the carmaker might believe it had fulfilled its local hiring obligations, the Indonesian industry minister said.
The BYD plant in Subang, West Java was officially launched on September 3 this year, and has an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, with more than 5,000 workers employed, according to the report.
Last month, BYD Malaysia announced Sime Motors’ Inokom Corporation as its local assembly (CKD) partner, a month after BYD Malaysia said that it had shelved the plan for its Tanjong Malim facility, which was originally announced in August 2025.
In Malaysia, the Inokom plant in Kulim, Kedah is staffed by a 100% Malaysian workforce comprised of more than 2,700 employees as of June this year. In addition to vehicle assembly, 370 local vendors are engaged with Inokom, in support of the Malaysian automotive ecosystem.
At present, Inokom produces vehicles for seven automotive brands; BMW, MINI, Porsche, Mazda, Hyundai, Chery and Kia, for domestic and export markets. Inokom is currently majority owned by Sime Motors (51%), with other key shareholders being Sime Darby Hyundai (5%), Hyundai Motor Company of South Korea (15%) and Bermaz Auto (29%).
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BYD Seal 6
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BYD must partner with one of the lokal kroni e.g. Sime Darby if they want to continue to operate in a corrupted place like Malaysi…oops sorry wrong country.
Low corruption rankings can be deceptive when corrupt practices are codified into law,
For instance, protectionist policies are might be used to shield failing monopolies and conglomerates or cartel effectively legalizing the enrichment of a few ultra-wealthy elites at the public’s expense?
Around the time of Mid-Autumn Festival, each worker at BYD’s China factories were given a mooncake that was hard as rocks. Act nice on paper to get people that don’t know much about their company to blindly support them (basically people out of China, like us for example), all while their act is done through cheap and stingy means.
It’s the tongkat’s loss for not convincing BYD to set up their own factory here, but lets not act like BYD is high and mighty either, they operate on such thin profit margins that if plans don’t go exactly their way, don’t expect them and their government to accept the compromise, absorb the losses and move forward with the project, especially for a smaller market like ours.