Indonesia nearly has a monopoly on nickel. What next?

In 1996 Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of Indonesia’s dictator, set out to build the Timor, a national car. The plan was to import models manufactured by Kia Motors, a South Korean carmaker, and rebrand them. Kia would teach Indonesians carmaking; strict local-content requirements would ensure the economy benefited. But as a financial crisis in 1997 battered Indonesia’s car market, 15,000 Timors sat idle in a car park. By 1998, as riots in Java brought down the Suharto regime, embarrassed Indonesians who owned the national car tore off their “T” logos. Under pressure from furious trade partners, the Timor was withdrawn.