New Delhi: A day after Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn pulled out from the $19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with natural resources conglomerate Vedanta, the company said Tuesday that it remains committed to India and is working to submit an application under the Indian government’s semiconductor manufacturing incentive scheme.
“Foxconn is working toward submitting an application related to the ‘Modified Programme for Semiconductors and Display Fab [Fabrication] Ecosystem’. We have been actively reviewing the landscape for optimal partners,” the company said in a statement shared with the media Tuesday.
The Foxconn statement added that the company welcomes a diverse set of stakeholders — both in India and abroad — who also want to see India “get to the next level” and “can complement” Foxconn’s world-class supply chain management and manufacturing efficiency.
“Foxconn is committed to India and sees the country successfully establishing a robust semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. It will take time. Foxconn first entered India in 2006 and we are still here. The Group looks forward to growing alongside India’s nascent semiconductor industry,” it said.
The Taiwanese tech giant added that it has sound channels of communication with government stakeholders across India, and has been “consistent and clear with them at all levels about our continued commitment to invest in India”.
In a statement Monday, Foxconn had said, “In order to explore more diverse development opportunities, according to mutual agreement, Foxconn has determined it will not move forward on the joint venture with Vedanta.”
Meanwhile, the union government had also said that the Taiwanese tech giant’s decision to pull out of the joint venture doesn’t affect the country’s semiconductor mission and ‘Make in India’ programme.
In a separate statement on Monday, Vedanta had reiterated that the company is “fully committed to its semiconductor fab project and we have lined up other partners to set up India’s first foundry”.
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‘Committed to invest in India’
On Tuesday, Foxconn clarified that both parties (it and Vedanta) mutually agreed to part ways. “This is not a negative,” it stressed.
“There was recognition from both sides that the project was not moving fast enough, there were challenging gaps we were not able to smoothly overcome, as well as external issues unrelated to the project. We have seen some media reports portraying Foxconn’s withdrawal from the joint venture with Vedanta as a negative example of the Group’s [Foxconn’s] investment integrity. That is absolutely not the case,” the company added.
It further said that when Foxconn course corrects, it is done only after heavy considerations of the near-term impact to its stakeholders, and on the long-term corporate health of the group and its shareholders.
“Building fabs from scratch in a new geography is a challenge, but Foxconn is committed to investing in India. We have been working on challenges like this since the 1980s. Foxconn has no intention to do anything but continue to strongly support the government’s ‘Make In India’ ambitions and establish a diversity of local partnerships that meet the needs of stakeholders,” said Foxconn.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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