Indonesia is close to a deal with US-based Apple Inc over an investment plan that would lift a ban on iPhone 16 sales in the country, according to a government minister, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Southeast Asia’s largest country has banned the sale of the new device in October, saying Apple had failed to comply with domestic manufacturing requirements for smartphones and tablets.

The company has been in discussions with the government over an investment package that would lift the restrictions, earlier reports showed.

“I strongly believe it will resolve very, very soon,” Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Davos on Tuesday. “Hopefully within one or two weeks this issue can be resolved.”

Apple’s latest $1 billion offer for one of its suppliers to set up a plant to produce airtags in the country was rejected by the Minister for Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, Bloomberg reported in January.

He said Apple’s vice-president for global affairs Nick Amman and the Apple delegation that the US company needed to fulfill a local regulation that requires it to make part of its iPhone, or the iPhone’s components, onshore.

“The way they calculate it is different I think,” Roeslani said, referring to the local content requirement.

“Now they find a solution on that one, so hopefully they accept the discrepancies so we can have the iPhone 16 sold in Indonesia,” he reportedly said.

Apple has no manufacturing facilities in Indonesia, a country of about 280 million people, but has since 2018 set up application developer academies, according to earlier news reports.

According to a report in April, Apple announced it will open Indonesia’s fourth Apple Developer Academy in Bali, expanding on its investment to increase opportunities for developers, students, and entrepreneurs looking to embark on careers in the region’s growing iOS app economy.

Since Indonesia’s first Apple Developer Academy launched in Jakarta in 2018, Apple has opened academies in Surabaya and Batam, and more than 2,000 aspiring developers have completed the program.

Apple still barred from selling iPhone 16 in Indonesia despite investment deal, minister says – report