Hon Hai to set up operation in Guangxi

Anticipating the free trade zone formed by mainland China and the Assocaiton of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will bring in lucrative business, Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. of the Hon Hai Group recently decided to open operation at an economic zone located in Guangxi Province of China.

The province borders Vietnam, a member of the 10 ASEAN states, making it an ideal springboard into the group from mainland China.

According to the mainland's government mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency and a local newspaper headquartered in Guangxi, Foxconn registered with the Nanning City government to open a precision-electronics venture in the city.

The news organizations pointed out that Foxcoon will invest up to US$3 billion in the economic zone in the long run to focus on deep processing on aluminum materials, electronics-information components, and environmental-protection components. Foxcoon estimated the venture's electronics-information business alone will likely turn out revenue exceeding RMB50 billion (US$6.4 billion at US$1:RMB7.7) a year.

Early this month, Xinhua News Agency reported that Foxconn had planned to invest over US$1 billion in logistics business in the province.

Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou recently disclosed his plan to construct six major industrial parks in Nanning including an aluminum-material processing park, an aluminum-material deep-processing park, an electronics park, as well as an energy-saving and environmental-protection technology park.

Gou pointed out that Nanning had grown attractive to Taiwanese manufacturers thanks to the formation of China-ASEAN free trade zone and the Pearl Delta Economic Ring as well as the development of the economic zone.

The economic zone covers 42,5000-sqaure kilometers of land, which accounts for 17.9% of Guangxi Province, and population of 12.3 million until 2005, representing one fourth of the province's population. The zone is part of the mainland's "11th Five-Year Plan" and a linkage of the China-ASEAN free trade zone, Pearl Delta and the mainland's West China Development Plan.

Chinese authorities plan to enhance its economic cooperation with ASEAN nations throughout the construction of the economic zone. The mainland's Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng noted that bilateral trades between mainland China and ASEAN will likely reach US$190 billion throughout this year and US$200 billion next year.

In March this year, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference, mentioned at a meeting of the conference that the mainland would speed up development of the economic zone. Xinhua News Agency reported that the mainland authorities were developing logistic environment on the economic zone with all-time efforts and planning to develop the zone into transportation and logistic pivot of southwestern China.

source & copyright: CENS