Xiaomi urges suppliers to set up base in India

Xiaomi on Monday said that it wants its global smartphone component makers to set up base in India, what is likely to bring as much as $ 2.5 billion of investment in the country while also creating up to 50,000 jobs.

Xiaomi also announced that it has set up three new smartphone manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu and AP as also a facility for printed circuit board ( PCB).

Xiaomi has started manufacturing smartphones at its power bank plant in partnership with Hipad Technology in Noida, UP, resulting in a total of six smartphone manufacturing plants in India to date.

“We had two facilities for smartphone manufacturing earlier. Now, we have added three more in Sri City, AP and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. These are in partnership with Foxconn,” said Xiaomi VP and India MD Manu Jain.

Marking a significant move in Xiaomi’s localisation strategy, the company also announced its first SMT ( Surface Mount Technology) plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA ( Printed Circuit Board Assembly) units in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, in partnership with Foxconn.

To date, over 95 per cent of Xiaomi smartphones sold in India are made in the country.

The company also hosted more than 50 of its global suppliers in New Delhi at an investment summit on Monday that was also attended by key government officials.

“If all the suppliers set base in India, this would lead to one of the biggest ever single investment in the electronic manufacturing industry, creating a big pool of jobs. It would potentially bring in an added investment of over ` 15,000 crore ($ 2.5 billion) and create as many as 50,000 job opportunities in India,” said the company.

It said that the objective of the summit is to educate Xiaomi’s global component suppliers about India’s smartphone industry and encourage them to establish local bases in the country.