Foxconn unit remains inoperative due lack of clients

While chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is busy portraying a glossy picture of his successful completion of two years in office, his pet project ‘Make in Maharashtra’ has received lukewarm response. Under the project, Mr Fadnavis had said that he had invited Foxconn, the Apple mobile manufacturer, to set up a plant here. However, due to the absence of client, the manufacturer has not started its unit.

Confirming the news, principal secretary of industries department Apurva Chandra said, “The business with Foxconn is yet to materialise. I visited its unit in Vashi and saw that they have not started manufacturing. I was informed that they have not received any client to begin production.”

The Maharashtra government and the Taiwan-based electronic contract manufacturer Foxconn Technologies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on August 8 last year, following which it was announced that Apple smartphones would be manufactured in the state. Foxconn had announced of investing $5 billion over next five years.

Mr Fadnavis had also allotted 1,500 acres of land in Pune to the company and claimed that the tie-up would create direct employment for 50,000 people.

On whether it was the Maharashtra government’s failure, Mr Chandra said, “Do not look only at the materialisation of MoUs to gauge the investments that Maharashtra has received. There are several projects worth thousands of crores happening on ground and these are investments are beyond the MoUs we have signed.”

“As far as Foxconn is concerned, they say they haven’t found any client. We do not think this is disappointing as we would like to give them some more time before taking a decision,” he added.