Foxconn not backtracking, assures Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday dispelled apprehensions that Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn was on the verge of backtracking from its proposed $5 billion project in the state.

"Last month, Foxconn officials met me and informed that they had certain issues with the central government... These are being sorted out. Their concerns pertain to matching manufacturing costs here with China," Fadnavis told mediapersons here.

After that happens, Foxconn plans to immediately launch its project in Maharashtra which has been delayed "but is not going anywhere..".

Fadnavis' clarification on the issue came two days after state opposition parties, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party asked him to make a clean breast on the project which promises to create 50,000 jobs here.

State Congress chief and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had said that the deal, signed on August 8, 2015 came under a cloud from the very start after Foxconn's founder-head Terry Gou made certain remarks at that time.

NCP's state spokesperson Nawab Malik had said that most MoUs signed during the 'Make In Maharashtra' initiative of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine are "fake" as the government did not declared with whom these were inked.

"Though Fadnavis is painting a glossy picture of the 'Make in Maharashtra' initiative, his and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project of Foxconn itself has not taken off," Malik said.

"Despite tall claims and the Chief Minister's (Devendra Fadnavis) foreign tours, no real investments have come to Maharashtra. During the Congress rule, we secured more foreign investments without resorting to 'jumlas' of this kind," Chavan said.

Though officials remain tightlipped, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., Taipei, or Foxconn, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics, has been allotted around 1,500 acres of land, but was in two minds as it was not getting enough customers to justify the huge investments.

Fadnavis added that the Centre was also examining certain conditions laid down by Foxconn, which has companies like Apple, Blackberry, Xiaomi and others as its clients.

--IANS

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