Huawei has announced that it will start to manufacture smartphones in India in collaboration with Flex starting next month. Starting from the first week of October 2016, the Flex manufacturing plant in Chennai will manufacture one of the Honor smartphones models.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister, Information & Technology, Law and Justice, made the announcement at Huawei’s ‘Make in India’ inauguration ceremony in New Delhi today.
The plant will have the capacity to make three million units by the end of 2017. In addition, Huawei will be strengthening after sales services in India with over 200 service centers, including more than 30 exclusive Huawei service centers in India. Huawei will also be partnering with more than 50,000 retail outlets by the end of 2016.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister, Information & Technology, Law and Justice said,
I would like to congratulate Huawei on their commitment to pursue their ‘Make in India’ vision. The Government of India is pleased to see so much enthusiasm for our “Make in India” initiative. We are working towards making India an electronic manufacturing hub. As India is set to become the second largest smartphone market, our government would like to invite even more businesses to come and manufacture in India. This is an opportune time to start manufacturing from India. The smartphone landscape in India is growing every day and such initiatives by technology leaders will help accelerate the growth of local manufacturing industry in India.
Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India said,
We have been present in India for the last 16 years and as part of our India focus, we have been consistently expanding our footprint in the market. This year especially has been of significance in our India journey. We recently launched our world class GSC in Bengaluru and the start of manufacturing in India is an affirmation of our commitment to India and supports the Make in India campaign. We are convinced about the growth potential and future of India and we’ll keep looking for opportunities to increase our presence here.
Last month, Chinese smartphone maker LeEco kick started smartphone manufacturing in India. A total of 37 mobile manufacturing companies have invested in India in last one year.
Oppo, Xiaomi, Gionee, Vivo, HTC, Sony, Microsoft, LG, Lenovo, Motorola, Asus, Micromax, Celkon and Karbonn have already announced investments in the country to set up their manufacturing plants.