Trump says Sprint will bring 5,000 jobs back to US

US President-elect Donald Trump has said that Sprint will bring 5,000 jobs back to the US from overseas, while another company OneWeb will add 3,000 more, media reports said.

Trump said the deal "was done through" SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, a Japanese billionaire and technology investor, CNBC reported on Thursday.

Earlier in December, the pair announced in New York that SoftBank agreed to invest $50 billion in the US and aimed to create 50,000 jobs.

It was unclear whether all of the positions announced on Wednesday were part of the 50,000 jobs pledge detailed previously.

SoftBank owns about 80 per cent of Sprint and in December invested $1 billion in OneWeb, a US satellite venture that aims to provide affordable internet.

Son said at the time that the OneWeb investment was the "first step" in his commitment to Trump.

"Because of what's happening and the spirit and hope, I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they're going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the US, taking them from other countries," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

"They're bringing them back to the US and Masa (Masayoshi Son) and some other people were very much involved in that so I want to thank them.

"And OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people and that's very exciting," Trump said.

It was not clear exactly from where the Sprint positions would be moved.

The company said in a statement that the jobs would support a "variety of functions" like customer care and sales.

It added that it would start talking to business partners, states and cities to determine the locations for the jobs.

Trump transition spokesman has not yet clarified from where the Sprint jobs would come and whether the 8,000 jobs are part of the 50,000 position goal announced earlier.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly urged companies to keep jobs in the US, arguing that his predecessors helped to push positions abroad through what he called bad trade deals and regulations.

He previously announced a deal with United Technologies unit Carrier to keep some of the jobs it planned to move to Mexico in Indiana.

Carrier said Indiana agreed to give it $7 million in financial incentives over multiple years to keep some operations in the state, while it would still close a separate facility and move 700 jobs to Mexico.

The deal also prompted concerns that Trump would intervene with companies on an individual basis and potentially pick winners and losers.

Trump earlier claimed the SoftBank investment was a direct result of his election.

However, the $50 billion would come from a previously announced $100 billion investment fund set up with Saudi Arabia, according to Dow Jones, and SoftBank has a long history of investing in the US.

--IANS

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