Moon touts Samsung's cooperation with Indian firms

On his state visit to India, one of the highlights of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s schedule was his visit to Samsung Electronics’ newest smartphone plant in Noida. Joined by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Moon touted the Korean tech titan’s cooperation with local businesses.

Samsung’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong greeted the two leaders ahead of a ceremony held to mark the completion of the new production line. Around 300 government officials of both countries and top brass of Samsung attended the event. 

It was the first time the Samsung heir met President Moon since he was released from jail in February after serving a yearlong term for his role in a corruption scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye. 

Whether Lee and Moon had a closed-door discussion was not revealed as of press time.

Moon described Samsung’s Noida plant as a “real model of co-prosperity and cooperation” between the two countries, which will contribute to development of the two economies.

“When India’s young populations, geographical advantages and basic scientific capabilities are combined with Korea’s manufacturing and cutting-edge IT technologies, this will lead to a successful partnership,” Moon said in a congratulatory speech.

“This economic partnership of the two countries will bear fruit as products made at this plant in India will be exported to the Middle East, Africa and other countries.”

During a short tour of the new production line, Moon and Modi met with two Indian engineers at the plant.

The engineers handed over the first smartphones produced at the new line, and the two leaders autographed the rear sides of the phones.

During a photo shoot with heads of around 50 Indian and Korean contractors for Samsung, Moon credited them as “pillars of the economic partnership of the two countries.” 

Samsung invested $650 million into the new facility in June 2017 to ramp up the local production capacity from 5 million smartphones per month to 10 million for further expansion into the Indian market.

Samsung was the top-selling smartphone brand in India for years, but it was beaten by China’s Xiaomi in the Indian market between October and December last year.

While Xiaomi shipped out nearly 8.2 million smartphones in India, giving it about 27 percent of the market share, Samsung sold nearly 7.3 million units and captured around 25 percent of the market, according to market researchers.

The South Korean smartphone maker is gearing up to increase its sales in the second-biggest market after China through the latest business expansion.

Samsung’s smartphone chief Koh Dong-jin told The Korea Herald on Sunday before his departure for India, “The fourth-quarter figure was largely seasonal, and we will do better starting the second quarter of this year.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)