 "Foxconn to build 12 factories, employ 1 million in India")
Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, in an interview to NDTV Gadgets, said his company plans to set up manufacturing units in India, as quickly as possible. He also stressed this would require a push from the Indian government as well.
Gou was on a tour of India, visiting New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, among other places. The Financial Times reported that Gou had announced plans to establish a fund to invest in Indian technology start-ups.
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Speaking to NDTV, Gou said the response from governments, both at the Centre and state-level, was much more positive and encouraging than it was 10 years ago. “(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has pushed for development, I like your Make in India, Skill India,” he said. “You have software, you have content, you need hardware and now Modi has made it your goal.”
Foxconn had opened its first plant in Chennai a decade ago when, Gou said, the government was not supportive enough towards manufacturing.
“Indian local (state) government is also much friendlier now,” he said. “I met with the chief ministers of three of your states, AP (Andhra Pradesh), Gujarat, and Maharashtra. (The CMs of) Gujarat and Maharashtra came to China, and saw my facilities, and they're keen that we set up in their states. Ten years ago, government was not friendly.”
The Financial Times report said the move signals a shift in strategy for the technology company, which is mainland China’s biggest private-sector employer, as it currently battles rising wage costs and labour disputes in the country. Foxconn is best known as the largest global contract manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.
The Register said Foxconn's projected one-million employment mark for India supplemented nearly the entire number of its current Chinese workforce.
The Financial Times goes on to suggest that according to experts, the group’s Indian expansion signalled a broader shift in which Foxconn would look to move low-end manufacturing from China to India, while seeking to supply companies targeting India’s domestic market, such as Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi.
Gou seemed to agree with this when he told NDTV that Foxconn would be following a strategy of partnerships, as part of its greater strategy of Internet Plus. “We are not a hardware manufacturing company only,” he said. “We are Internet Plus, that means content, and hardware for information processing, and cloud, and bandwidth. We have expertise for all of this, and we will partner with Indian companies to deliver this.”
However he declined from revealing the names of the companies that Foxconn is working with in India, or even the products it will manufacture here, even as he hinted that the preference would be for local brands.
“We have to look at (a) lot of different factors before deciding what to make. But we will work with local brands and help them with design, and manufacture components locally, so that Indian brands can also start to export; right now India does not export,” Gou said.
While the Taiwanese company would be the most significant global manufacturer looking to take advantage of Modi’s Make in India programme till now, Gou has clearly indicated major bottlenecks have to be solved first, if the programme is to become successful.
“Your infrastructure will be a big limitation. Today I was told it will take 20 minutes to reach you, but it took 1 hour 20 minutes because it rained,” the Foxconn CEO pointed out to NDTV. “Power is a problem. If there is a power cut, the entire factory has to stop working. Power, water, skilled workers — all these problems need to be solved.”