Apple’s CEO is on the verge of concluding a highly public tour that’s taken him from Hanoi to Jakarta, during which he repeatedly stressed the region’s importance as both a market and emergent manufacturing base. His company is looking for growth markets beyond China, a traditional stronghold where demand for its flagship iPhone is sputtering. The company is also diversifying its production beyond the communist country to reduce risks at a time of elevated tensions between the world’s two biggest superpowers.
Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook will meet Singapore’s leader at the tail end of his most extensive Southeast Asia tour in years, searching for new growth markets and manufacturing locations to offset headwinds in China.
Cook will be in Singapore on Thursday and Friday to meet with Lawrence Wong, who is set to take over as Prime Minister next month, as well as his predecessor Lee Hsien Loong, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the executive’s itinerary isn’t public.
