NEW DELHI: South Korean giant Samsung, among the top multinational companies with major manufacturing operations in India, says the country is set to become the next global factory as China loses its competitive edge, given the available talent and need for job creation in Asia's third-largest economy. "China is losing the competitiveness very rapidly today," BD Park, Samsung's president and CEO for South West Asia.
"Labour costs are rising and as they become richer, their currency will gain versus the US dollar, which means that they will lose the competitiveness for export." He added that with India already being a software superpower, "it should now emerge as a global factory, for which infrastructure should be created with the help of public and private sector".
Park's comments come in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech on Independence Day, exhorting companies around the world to manufacture their products in India, not just for the local market but for exports as well. "From the ramparts of the Red Fort, I would like to call people of the world to 'come, make in India'. Come here and manufacture in India. Sell the products anywhere in the world but manufacture here...we have the power, come I am inviting you," Modi said on August 15.
He pointed to India's young population, which has the skill and talent to help make India an export hub for the world. He asserted that the focus on the manufacturing sector would help in creating employment for people, besides maintaining a balance in exports and imports. "More than 75% Indians are below 25 years of age who must be given the right jobs," Samsung's Park said.
Comments from the electronics major, which manufactures most of its products including smartphones, refrigerators, ACs, TVs and washing machines from two factories in India and sells them locally and abroad, provide a much needed fillip to the country as it seeks to contain the current account deficit, boost exports, tame inflation and revive growth from close to decade-low levels. Samsung is currently the fourthlargest MNC in India by revenue and expects to be the leader in the next fiscal year, If not in the current one.
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