Manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone ‘Foxconn’ looks at Gopalpur SEZ (Berhampur), Odisha for setting up unit

“Foxconn has visited the industrial park at Gopalpur and has shown interest to put up a facility. The company has asked for 1,000 acres of land. The location has surplus land and it can be offered to Foxconn,” said Pranab Prakash Das, Odisha’s minister for electronics and information technology.

It needs to be mentioned that Foxconn’s engagement with the Odisha government is still nascent and the company is yet to spell out the scale of investment or the range of products it intends to manufacture in the state.

In 2015, Foxconn had announced it would set up 12 factories in India, creating one million jobs.

A team from Foxconn has already visited the industrial park at Gopalpur where Tata Steel is the anchor tenant. The industrial park spreads over 3,500 acres of land.

PLANS IN THE STATE
A team from Odisha govt visited Taiwan in Oct 2015, Foxconn evinced interest
Foxconn has sought 1,000 acres for Odisha unit
Odisha has rolled out incentives for electronics investors
It’s giving additional incentives on capitalinvestment subsidy, human capital investment subsidy, power, water and interest subsidy

The state government considers Gopalpur as an ideal port-based location for Foxconn’s manufacturing unit. It will also offer it the advantage of proximity to the Visakhapatnam port.

“Foxconn officials had evinced interest in visiting Odisha and explore the opportunities during a state delegation visit to Taiwan to attract investments in the electronic system design and manufacturing sector in October 2015,” said an industry source.

Foxconn had started negotiations towards the middle of 2015 for making Apple’s iPhones in India.

In August 2015, the Taiwanese electronics major signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government to set up an electronics manufacturing plant at an investment of $5 billion for five years.

Foxconn is keen to invest on manufacturing, energy and e-commerce sectors in the country. It has kicked off local production of mobile handsets for Chinese brands Gionee and OnePlus at Sri City, 575 km from Hyderabad.

The Odisha government, meanwhile, has been making frenzied efforts to lure investors in the electronics manufacturing space.

The state government has already declared a special incentive package scheme to lure investments in electronics by giving additional incentives on capital investment subsidy, human capital investment subsidy, power incentives, water incentives and interest subsidy over and above the promises made in the Information and Communications Technology Policy-2014.

Investors with investment exceeding Rs 200 crore and offering employment potential of 500 would be entitled to 25 per cent investment subsidy on capital investment, subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore. Further, if their project is financed by public sector banks, the state government would offer an interest subvention of five per cent.

The state information technology department has also been renamed as the department of electronics and information technology.