Foxcon plans $1 bn investment in India

After Nokia, a top Taiwanese telecom component and accessories manufacturing company, Foxcon, is planning to invest close to $1 billion in India.

Japanese company Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation is also planning to enhance the capacity of its Haldia-based Purified Terepthalic Acid (PTA) plant to around 8 lakh tonnes, according to a top government official.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a session on FDI at the ongoing World Economic Forum, Industry Secretary A K Dua said representatives of the Taiwanese company had met government officials recently regarding their plans to invest in India.

"They will bring their chips from abroad and assemble handsets here. They are scouting sites to set up their facility including Tamil Nadu," he said adding that the investment would be at least close to a billion dollars.

Dua said representatives of Korean steel company Posco had also recently met officials and indicated that the first phase of the 12-million tonne project could now be enhanced from 3 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes. Dua, however, clarified that the company had not yet applied to the FIPB.

"They are yet to firm up their view on whether they will take the SEZ route or come through FIPB," he said.

He said BMW was also close to finalising its plans to set up a manufacturing facility in India and added that the board of Mitsubishi would meet soon to approve plans to enhance the capacity of its PTA plant at Haldia from 3.75 lakh tonnes to 8 lakh tonnes.

Dua said that going by the trends of the first six months, India was likely to attract FDI inflows of around $ 6.5 billion, a 20 per cent increase over $ 5.3 billion in 2004-05.

He said the increase in FDI inflows were mainly in the manufacturing sector and sectors like mining.