Japanese Company Hitachi would invest more Rs.4,700 crore in India by March 2016 to set up new factories and hire more people, firm’s president Hiroaki Nakanishi told reporters on Thursday.
The investment would boost the company’s revenue to Rs.20,000 crore by March 2016 from Rs.6,700 crore in fiscal 2011, Nakanishi said at a media briefing.
Hitachi, which held its first ever board meeting outside Japan here, plans to use India as a base to expand business in territories such as Africa and West Asia.
“Today Hitachi had its first board meeting outside Japan and we held it in India. We also fixed India strategy till 2015-16. We target to treble our revenue from here to 300 billion yen (Rs.20,000 crore). To meet our target, we will invest 70 billion yen (Rs.4,700 crore) by 2015-16,” said Nakanishi.
The company plans to raise its total staff number to 13,000 in India by 2014-15 from around 6,800 currently.
Hitachi, which is present in a wide array of businesses ranging from construction and machinery to nuclear reactors, is focusing more on public infrastructure projects such as electronic power and railway systems.
Nakanishi referred to the Indian government’s plan to invest $1 trillion in “social infrastructure” during the 12th plan period (2012-17) and the delays in infrastructure projects as “a big challenge.”
He said the company also plans to set up five new facilities, including two auto component plants in Chennai and Neemrana in Rajasthan.
The company Wednesday began operations at an electronic power back-up instrument manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat.