Andhra Pradesh’s Education, Information Technology and Electronics Minister, Nara Lokesh, on Monday invited Foxconn to develop a “manufacturing city”, promising to provide all facilities to the company.
The Minister, who met the Foxconn representatives at his residence in Undavalli, said the government would provide all facilities so that Foxconn can develop a ‘manufacturing city’ to create more jobs.
“Since you are planning to expand your activities across India, I want you to establish, not a mere one more unit, but a mega manufacturing city in the State. We will extend all cooperation for this,” Lokesh told the delegation and said that the target of the state government is to provide 20 lakh jobs to the youth.
He expressed confidence that Foxconn will play a major role in this.
“Whatever assistance you need for the establishment of a mega manufacturing city, I will personally look after that and we will formulate a special plan for this,” Lokesh told the team.
He explained to them in detail about the available resources in the state for setting up their units and also the steps taken during the period from 2014 to 2019, when his TDP was in power, to attract investments to the state besides listing the IT companies that have set up their units in the state.
Lokesh informed them how the Kia company was invited to the state during the period which he termed as a case study.
Assuring the Foxconn delegation that a policy would be formulated to provide subsidies with the sole aim of providing employment, Lokesh informed them that a novel electronic policy would soon be formulated too.
Maintaining that with the initiative taken by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, several companies, including Foxconn, had set up their units in the state during the 2014 to 2019 period, he reminded them that 14,000 jobs were provided for women during that time.
Foxconn’s Indian representative, Vi Li, praised the initiative being taken by Chandrababu Naidu in attracting investments to the state.
Regretting that the company had faced certain difficulties in the state in the past five years, he said that the company had a very warm relationship with Andhra Pradesh.
Stating that Foxconn has several units across the globe and has plans to expand its activities in the country, the company representative said that a decision will soon be taken after holding discussions with the officials of the state government.
According to an official statement, the Foxconn Indian representative said that the company is ready to set up electric vehicle manufacturing, semiconductors, digital health, and manufacturing components units in Andhra Pradesh.
He informed Lokesh that the company will certainly extend its cooperation in fulfilling the promise of providing 20 lakh jobs. The Foxconn representatives, in principle, agreed to invest heavily in the state and provide large-scale employment to the youth.
Lokesh asked them to begin their exercise at the earliest possible. Besides Vi Li, the Director of Foxconn Chairman’s office, Senthil Kumar, Deputy Director, Bharat Dandi, the Manager, Vector Chen, the IT and Electronics Principal Secretary, Sourabh Gour and others participated in the meeting.