Taiwan mobile co to set up shop in India

By agencies   |   Tuesday, 29 November 2005, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia announcing its manufacturing plans for India, a Taiwanese rival is also in talks with the Government to set up shop in the country. “A Taiwan-based handset manufacturer, who has large investment in China, held talks with us... they are looking forward to set up a base in Tamil Nadu and would invest a couple of billion dollars in phases,” the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary, Ajay Du said on the sidelines of India Economic Summit 2005. Nokia too would be setting up the facility in Tamil Nadu. Refusing to name the manufacturer, he said that the company had a large manufacturing facility for handsets in China and they looking to set up a similar facility in other places too. Earlier making a presentation at the summit, he said that 100 million more new telephone connections is expected to be added in next three to four years. India, which is home to over one billion people, has a tele-density of just 10.66 percent. The Government hopes to double this figure in the next three years. Du said that the country was attracting a lot of investment in manufacturing sector including steel, automobile and telecom equipment and FDI inflow has increased by 17 percent during the first six months of this financial year compared to the year-ago period. It is expected that the foreign investment inflow would increase by at least 20 percent to touch $6.5 billion compared to $5.3 billion during the last financial year.