Electronic Wizard

Abidin Fan has built Sat Nusapersada into one of Indonesia’s largest smartphone and electronic makers.

- Ardian Wibisono

Abidin Fan, 55, founder and president director of PT Sat Nusapersada, knows his way around his maze-like electronic assembling facility in Batam. In the factory, smartphones from different brands are assembled from scratch, loaded with software and packaged ready to be sold—a one stop shop for his clients. Abidin walks fast but his sharply focused eyes can spot even a single hair on the floor, which he then picks up himself and throws into the trash. Cleanliness is critical in a factory assembling electronic parts, and visitors and employees must wear caps and shoe covers. Some areas are offlimits—accessible only to selected clients such as Epson, Asus, Xiaomi and Foxconn. The last two are the latest clients to use Sat Nusapersada to assemble their smartphones sold in Indonesia. Abidin says a tour of the entire facility— spread over five hectares—can take a visitor more than six hours.

Over the last two years, Sat Nusapersada has been rapidly growing its smartphone manufacturing on the back of the government’s local content regulation. The regulation, launched last year, requires products sold in Indonesia within the 4G spectrum, including smartphones, to have 30% local content, both in hardware and software. This requirement amends the 2016 law that set the minimum at 20%. The government might continue to raise the figure in a bid to boost domestic manufacturing—and Abidin will be ready to answer the call.