We will rapidly expand our operations in India: Foxconn Chairman Young Liu

Seeing improvements in the industrial environment Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said that the company would expand in India, reported Economic Times. Liu said that enhanced government efficiency will also play a crucial role, highlighting the growing importance of Taiwan in the global market as the world's largest contract manufacturer amid rising tension with China.

In an investor call last week, Liu said that India will play an important role in the future. "So, overall, I think our development in India, I see it actively heading in a positive direction--that is, it is going to get better and better", Liu said.

"Overall, on India, our group’s development in India will be actively expanding," Liu further added.

Foxconn's commitment to India can be seen as a strong push by Taiwan to improve ties with other nations as China steps up its military belligerence near the island nation. 

In July this year, Maharashtra also won a Rs 2.06 trillion investment by Vedanta Group-Foxconn partnership in the sunrise semiconductors chips and display fabrications sector in Pune.

Earlier this year, Vedanta Group — the mining giant based in Mumbai — had partnered with the Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) with plans to invest $15 billion in phases over the next five-ten years to manufacture semiconductor chips and displays in India.

This mega-project will create around 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, total revenues of GST worth Rs 1.25 trillion comprising Rs 37,500 crore State GST and the rest of Rs 88,079 as Inter-State GST.

Foxconn has three sites in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh where it makes phones for Apple, Xiaomi and other electronic brands under various other companies.

According to the ET report, Sana Hashmi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation says that the current situation in Taiwan — the visit by Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives and military drills by China — must be seen as a wake-up call by other companies and they too may consider building ties with other nations.

“The current situation is a wake-up call for several Taiwanese companies who were till now unwilling to move out of China,” said Sana Hashmi. I think Foxconn, due to it being more global in nature, has been a little more forthcoming than other companies (relatively smaller).”

“The next stop should be Southeast Asia and India, but there are still structural problems,” she said. “While the tensions motivate Taiwanese companies to look towards India, there’s a lot more that needs to be done”, ET quoted Sana.