The Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, said on Friday it is studying the possibility of investing in Indonesia, but has yet to reach any decision on the matter.
The company was responding to several reports that cited sources in Indonesia as saying the group would invest as much as US$1 billion (NT$29.9 billion) to build manufacturing facilities in the Southeast Asian country.
The reports said the investment is expected to create 1 million jobs for Indonesia, while the Indonesian government is willing to provide incentives, such as tax breaks, to the Taiwanese investor.
Hon Hai confirmed that group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) visited the country from July 6 to Tuesday last week at the invitation of the Indonesian government to survey the market there.
The group said Indonesia, with a population of 240 million people, has tremendous domestic demand growth potential and is also gearing up to attract foreign investment to strengthen its high-tech capabilities.
Hon Hai is now carefully evaluating possible opportunities in Indonesia and weighing up the country’s investment environment and possible incentives, but the group stressed it has yet to decide on whether it will go to Indonesia or even how it might approach investing in the country.
The Taiwan-based Hon Hai Group has a broad worldwide production base, in particular in China, where it hires more than 1 million workers to churn out gadgets for international brands, such as Apple Inc, Dell Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and Sony Corp.
Meanwhile, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the flagship company of the group, announced that it has decided to invest US$111 million in Kunshan and Huaian in Jiangsu Province, China, to expand its production of connectors and related products.
The company also announced it will invest US$35 million to set up a plant in Henan Province to manufacture and sell LED products.
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