Modi to call on Samsung, LG to ‘Make in India’

Taking forward his ‘Make in India’ initiative to South Korea, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be meeting top executives at Samsung and LG early next week to invite the business conglomerates to set up manufacturing plants in the country.

Modi, who will embark on his three-nation tour on May 14, will land in South Korea on May 18, where he is expected to meet officials at the highest levels and push Samsung and LG to house semiconductor manufacturing plants in India. This move may boost local manufacturing of cellular phones as well.

Union Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, confirmed the move, saying the Indian Government expected something concrete now.

Modi is likely to meet Samsung Electronics' President and Head (IT and mobile communications business) J.K. Shin who is also a director on the parent company's board and widely considered the most important executive at the firm.

At LG Electronics, Modi will meet global CEO and Vice-Chairman Bon-Joon Koo, who is from the promoter family and is the founder's grandson.

The PM is tipped to pitch the country as the next manufacturing hub for cellphones and semiconductor facility, to these two chaebol, a senior executive with one of them told Economic Times, requesting anonymity, as the matter is confidential.

Setting up a semi-conductor plant along with downstream units entails more than $2-3 billion of investment.

"Only when a semiconductor facility is set up, it will usher in a complete revolution in cellphone manufacturing in India since a cellphone or electronic product can then be manufactured from the component level as compared to the current scenario when the models and components are mostly imported in completed knock down format and then assembled in India," he told the financial daily.

LG India's Managing Director Soon Kwon said Modi's visit will boost bilateral ties but declined to share any details of Modi’s business engagement with Korean companies.

A Samsung India spokesperson was not available for comments. The Indian Government has been trying to attract semiconductor or manufacturing in India, but did not achieve much success on this front.

The previous Congress-led UPA Government had made several pitches to Samsung and LG to invest in India but to no success.

Samsung is one of the world's leading semiconductor firms and even supplies chips to rival Apple's iPhone. LG too is reviving its semiconductor business and has acquired Korean firms.

India is among the fifth largest market for LG and the country's largest white goods maker operates two plants here.

(Image: Reuters)