Foxconn backs India’s role in electronics manufacturing

Speaking to reporters at an event in Taipei, Liu said India could build the ecosystem faster than China—which took 30 years—on the back of experience and new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

“Some of India’s developments over the past few years, everyone can see that. The time has about come for India’s turn to start to fully develop as a country. If there’s no big change, India will be a very important country in terms of manufacturing in the future,” the chairman said.

“In the past, it took more than 30 years to build an ecosystem in China. Of course, it will also take an appropriate amount of time in India, but because it has the appropriate experience, the time will be shorter. So it will have many similar situations to those when China was developing, but it will be different from 30 years ago. The environment is not quite the same. At that time, there was no generative AI or even AI, but now there is AI. Can its (India’s) development be entirely inferred from part of history? I don’t think it’s perfect to speculate from history, but we feel that development of the entire ecosystem and industrial chain, and the opportunities for development in India are very huge opportunities,” Liu said.

His comments come at a time when India is attempting to position itself as an alternative manufacturing destination to China and a supplier in global value chains amid geopolitical tensions that were leading to global companies shifting some of their manufacturing capacities out of the country. The South Asian nation is wooing global information technology (IT), electronics and semiconductor companies with production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and broader enabling policies, which would give them a combination of talent and skill base besides a local vibrant market for sales as well as a base for exports to global markets. The initiatives appear to be attracting companies like Foxconn, with the group’s India arm having applied as one of the 40 companies—alongside HP, Dell and Lenovo—for availing the incentives under the PLI scheme for making laptops, PCs and servers.

In July this year, while addressing SemiconIndia 2023, the chairman said he was optimistic about the direction of India’s semiconductor roadmap and asserted that Taiwan would be India’s most trusted and reliable partner. “IT is India and Taiwan. Let’s do this together,” he had said.

Foxconn has been operating in India since 2005 and has been making smartphones for Xiaomi over the past couple of years. Of late, the largest contract manufacturer of iPhones in the world is already the largest maker of iPhones in India as well. Foxconn is also applying for setting up a semiconductor manufacturing plant in India.

Liu was also reported to have said in the second-quarter earnings call that the company’s Indian arm has achieved a turnover of close to $10 billion annually and that there is a lot of investment potential in the country. He said Foxconn operates nine campuses in India, across Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The company intends to expand its presence through manufacturing campuses in Karnataka and Telangana.

Indian government officials said that the Foxconn chief had backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India and that reforms and policies in India had created huge opportunities for the development of the entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

Foxconn, officially called Hon Hai Technology Group, is also considering investing in India for setting up electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing plants. One of the states where it already has operations may be decided upon for the plans. Globally, Foxconn has more than a dozen business units that make different products ranging from phones, laptops, tablets and routers to EVs.

Updated: 08 Sep 2023, 12:37 AM IST