Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is likely to sign a deal next month with the government of Maharashtra, India’s Economic Times said on Sunday.
In a report posted on its Web site, the Economic Times said that Hon Hai executives earlier this month met with state officials, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Citing sources close to the deal, the report said that Hon Hai has told the Maharashtra authorities it would build a plant in the special economic zone of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
Hon Hai has already bid for an 18-hectare plot in the economic zone for the new plant, although the company said it would need an additional 81 hectares eventually for the investment deal, the sources said.
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) is scheduled to travel to India next month to sign a formal deal, the report said.
In 2015, Hon Hai said it would invest US$5 billion in Maharashtra to build a plant for mobile phones and components, which is expected to create 50,000 jobs by 2020, the report said.
While Hon Hai is already producing television sets, as well as Xiaomi (小米) and Nokia-branded phones in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, its investment plan in Maharashtra had made little progress, the report added.
In the wake of Hon Hai’s plan to build a plant in the state’s special economic zone, Fadnavis wrote to Indian Minister of Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and asked him to allot 81 hectares to the Taiwanese investor, the report said.
Hon Hai is also seeking additional land outside the special economic zone in the state, it said.
In line with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “Make in India” initiative, Hon Hai has embarked on a project to establish 10 to 12 facilities in India by 2020 as part of the company’s efforts to extend its global reach in electronics manufacturing, while seeking partners to invest in a wide range of businesses, such as e-commerce, mobile Internet services and renewable energy.
Hon Hai operates a broad production base in China with a workforce of about 1 million. It is also investing US$10 billion to build an advanced flat-panel compound in the US state of Wisconsin.
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