Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE and are citing local manufacturing in India to skip shelling out 20 per cent basic customs duty levied by the government.
“We are carefully looking at the feasibility of local manufacturing. This is also a subset of our discussions with the Indian authorities,” said Xiao Ming, President, ZTE Global Sales.
“This is still in very early stages. We are seeing the Indian government’s ambitions which are positive, that’s why we are seriously considering mobile manufacturing,’’ added Ming.
The top executive also informed that if the firm can garner incentives then it would shift a number of its factories in India.
Ming said that local manufacturing comes as a part of ZTE’s long term investment plan in India. Huawei on the other is materialising a plan to start local manufacturing of telecom equipment in India again.
“We are thinking about a new plant for carrier business and enterprise. We are closely working with HQ for the new plant. We recently met people in Chennai. We understand the Make in India project,” said Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India.
