After clocking $100 million in exports in 2005, LG Electronics India, on Wednesday said it would focus on developing India as a major hub for its exports to Africa, Middle East, CIS and South Asian countries with an investment of $259 billion over the next five years.
"We are intensively engaged in developing our manufacturing unit in Pune as the hub for our exports. Full operations from this plant is likely to begin next year," managing director LGEIL K R Kim told reporters.
"LG Korea has already put in enough money in China, now the focus is on India," Kim said, adding that the present manufacturing base of LGEIL at Greater Noida would continue to cater to the domestic consumer durables and home appliances market. The Pune base would be developed for exports purpose because of the geographical advantage.
LGEIL is targeting exports from India to go up to $240 million in 2006 and touch $1billion by 2010.
Commenting on LGEIL's exports, the company's assistant general manager for exports, Jatin Madan said the growth was possible due to the constant product portfolio expansion done by the company.
He said the company would close this year with a total of around 85 models in the different product categories including refrigerators, ACs, optical storage device, DVDs, GSM mobiles.
"Our main focus will be to capture the market in IT and GSM. At present we have only six per cent products. We are planning more models in this segment," he said.
The company has so far earmarked Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion) over the next three years for Pune and another $250 million dollar for its Noida unit.