Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, will set up a cloud-based technology center in Kaohsiung in a bid to enter the software development market, government sources said on Saturday.
Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), will invest NT$1.9 billion (US$62.3 million) to build the cloud technology center and a software research and development site in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Export Processing Zone Administration said.
Construction of the Kaohsiung cloud technology center is scheduled to start on Thursday and it is to be completed in two to three years, government sources said.
The Kaohsiung Software Technology Park is operated by the Export Processing Zone Administration and is part of the government’s efforts to transform Kaohsiung, the second-largest city in Taiwan, into a regional operations hub.
Hon Hai, which manufactures iPhones and iPads for Apple, as well as gadgets for other high-tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sony, signed an agreement with the government in June 2009 to rent a a 1.85 hectare piece of land in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park for the investment.
The group has posted a notice on the Internet to hire about 3,000 engineers to integrate its manufacturing and software development businesses.
It plans to build a digital content and software service headquarters to develop a wide variety of products, such as wireless communications applications, electronics commerce platforms and software for Internet security.
Hon Hai is one of many turning to cloud technology in an effort to use its value-added attributes to weather falling profit margins in the hardware manufacturing business.
Shen Jung-chin (沈榮津), head of the Export Processing Zone Administration, said Hon Hai’s presence in the Kaohsiung Software Technology Park is expected to serve as a magnet to attract more high-tech companies.
About 200 firms have set up bases in the software park, Shen said.
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