Elcoteq to open factory in India

"This is where the markets are", says president of Elcoteq Asia-Pacific

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Elcoteq Network Corporation, the largest European electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, will open a production plant in Bangalore in Southern India by the end of the year. Bangalore is India's budding centre of IT and technology.
      Elcoteq is the first EMS provider to commence production in India. In Bangalore, Elcoteq's operations will initially consist of manufacturing mobile phones. Later on the output may include other telecommunications products as well.
      Once fully operational, the plant will employ around one thousand people. At the end of 2003, Elcoteq's total workforce was 12,800 people.
      According to Hannu Keinänen, President of Elcoteq Asia-Pacific, this is not a question of shifting jobs from Finland to India, or the notorious "China syndrome" of Finnish jobs disappearing abroad. "We are branching out to India, because that's where the markets are", Keinänen commented via telephone from Hong Kong.
      Keinänen took over the reins of the Asia-Pacific region after the area's previous president, Jouni Hartikainen was promoted to be the CEO of the entire corporation.
      As yet, Elcoteq has refrained from naming any of its clients in India.
     
India has one of the fastest-growing mobile communication markets in the world. It is estimated that so far only five to ten percent of the country's population of over one billion people have a mobile phone.
      According to predictions, the number of mobile phone users in India may increase at a rate of 50 percent per year.
      "We aim at a 5-10 percent cut of this market", Keinänen establishes.
      At present, most telecommunications products sold in India are manufactured abroad. Nokia is India's market leader in mobile phones. So far, Nokia has announced no plans to start manufacturing phones in the country, but it has increased research and development there.
      Elcoteq, who admit to having followed the development in India for a few years, say Bangalore was chosen because of the presence of a capable workforce there. The wage level in Bangalore is slightly higher than elsewhere in India, but still lower than in China. According to Keinänen, an average employee's monthly salary is closer to 100 than to 50 euros.


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