Young Liu, Chairman and CEO of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), recently added his voice to a growing chorus of voices around the world endorsing the nation’s bold moves to position itself as an electronics and high-tech production powerhouse. He stated that India will be a significant country in terms of manufacturing in the future.
In an interaction with reporters in Taipei, the top honcho of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant said the development of the entire ecosystem and industrial chain, and opportunities for development in India are “very, very huge opportunities”. According to Liu, “India will be a very important country in terms of manufacturing in the future if there is no significant change.”
The entire supply chain ecosystem in China previously took 30 years to develop, he said, whereas it will take a “appropriate amount of time in India” and the process will be quicker given the experience. He pointed out the introduction of new technologies like AI and generative AI as evidence that the environment is also not quite the same.
While speaking at SemiconIndia 2023 in July of this year, Foxconn stated that Taiwan is and will continue to be India’s most dependable and trusted partner and expressed optimism about the direction of India’s semiconductor roadmap. The executive of Foxconn had said, “Let’s do this together,” at that time. The head of Foxconn is supporting the Make-in-India initiative, according to government sources.
Liu has expressed that reforms and policies in India have created huge opportunities for the development of the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem, the sources said citing the recent media briefing in Taipei where Liu spoke to reporters. It is pertinent to mention that India is wooing global IT and electronics players with policy sweeteners and incentive schemes, making a push to position itself as a global hub for hi-tech manufacturing.
India hopes to play on the strength of its storied talent and skill base, vibrant market, and enabling policies to corner a substantial chunk of new investments flowing into electronics and semiconductor production, and global value chains.
Recently, as many as 40 companies, including big names like Foxconn Group, HP, Dell and Lenovo, applied for incentives under India’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) IT hardware scheme for manufacturing laptops, PCs and servers. Last month, Foxconn also said it sees the potential of investing several billions of dollars in India if it gets to completely implement its plan.
Liu during Foxconn’s second quarter earnings call in August had said that the company’s Indian arm has achieved a turnover of close to USD 10 billion on an annual basis and there is a lot of investment potential in India. He had said Foxconn operates about nine campuses in India.
