Foxconn plans $10 billion plant in Indonesia

Foxconn plans to diversify its manufacturing capacity by setting up shop in Indonesia. The electronics manufacturing giant plans to invest between $5 billion and $10 billion, enabling the company to tap into one of the cheapest labor forces in Asia and give it access to a planned Southeast Asian duty-free zone that will include some 600 million consumers.

Foxconn hasn't confirmed the news, but chairman Terry Gou stated earlier this year that the company would expand operations in Brazil, invest in Japan and Germany, and that the next stops would be Indonesia and Myanmar. Full details at Reuters.

"Foxconn already has factories in China and Brazil, and not yet one in Southeast Asia. I think Indonesia is a right decision from a market perspective," said Ali Soebroto Oentayo, chairman of Indonesia's electronics association, forecasting 20 percent growth in the country's electronics sales this year.

Taiwan-based Foxconn plans to start building a plant in October in an industrial zone near Jakarta to assemble 3 million handsets a year and then to increase output and products later, Indonesia's Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said on Tuesday. The investment would be between $5 billion and $10 billion, he said.