By IANS
New Delhi : India has overtaken US as the second largest market after China for mobile phones manufactured by Finnish giant Nokia, the group’s president and chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said Thursday.
“India has quickly become one of the largest markets,” Kallasvuo, who is on a three-day visit to India, told reporters here, adding that the Nokia facility near Chennai has started exporting handsets to 58 countries.
He said 60 million handsets were shipped from the factory since it commenced production 18 months ago and that he expected Nokia to maintain its growth in the country and expand its headcount.
“India is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy buoyed by impressive growth, skilled manpower and tremendous business opportunity,” said the top executive, who visited Chennai earlier and leaves for Mumbai Thursday.
“Nokia is committed to build the telecom ecosystem in the country and foster the creation of a favourable environment for collaboration and economic development. We are going to be active in different types of services markets.”
The company’s special economic zone at Sriperumbudur has received more than $500 million in investment and employs around 4,700 people. Eventually, the seven global component manufacturers will add more than 30,000 jobs, he said.
In partnership with Siemens, Nokia is also opening a manufacturing facility in Chennai with an investment of about $100 million over a span of three years. The facility would be operational by next year, officials said.
This new joint venture entity with Siemens recently bagged two orders worth $900 million and $500 million from leading operators Airtel and Idea, respectively.
Kallasvuo said India was a major hub for Nokia in terms of design, research and development and manufacturing. “We are also the country’s leading provider of wireless infrastructure through Nokia Siemens Network.”