Taiwan's Wistron Corporation joins hands with Indian telecom enterprise to make in India, to invest $200M

Under the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, Optiemus Infracom Limited, an Indian telecom enterprise and Wistron Corporation, Taiwan’s Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), announced a joint venture (JV) agreement to set up manufacturing facilities for telecom products in India.

Over the next five years, the partners will strategically invest approximately USD 200 million in infrastructure, technologies and processes, to cater to growing Indian and global demands of telecom products such as smart phones, tablets and smart devices. The partnership aims to provide a complete end to end solution to global and Indian brands encompassing world class manufacturing infrastructure, distribution, retail and after sales. The JV targets to create over 15,000 employment opportunities in India, over the next five years.

“Embarking on this new journey we intend to emerge as one of the top three third party manufacturers in the country in the next five years,” said Ravinder Zutshi, Managing Director, Optiemus Infracom Limited.

According to experts, the JV is in the line of growing mobile market in India. As per the research of IDC, by 2017, India is expected to overtake USA to be the second largest smartphone market globally. The market is expected to continue to grow in double-digits over the next few years as more and more people switch to smartphones and gradually upgrade to 4G-enabled phones.

“With our extensive expertise in the global ICT sector and our partner’s unique local market understanding, we plan to significantly grow and nurture the Indian technology market,” mentioned Robert Hwang, President and COO, Wistron Corporation.

According to recent figures, the government has received investment proposals worth USD 3.05 billion under 'Make in India' initiative. Companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei have already set up manufacturing units in India, while iPhone, iPad manufacturer Foxconn is expected to open a manufacturing unit soon.

In a report released by the World Bank, about a state-wise bifurcation based on ease of doing business, Gujarat was ranked as the top state, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand.