Ministry is making eyes at Motorola
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry is courting Motorola to set up a mobile-phone manufacturing facility in Thailand to cash in on the country's fast-growing market.
Deputy Prime Minister and acting ICT Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul made an approach to the US communications giant two weeks ago during his meeting with its chief executive Ed Zander. Zander, who visited on June 8, said Thailand and Southeast Asia were the company's fast-growth markets. The Kingdom has more than 30 million mobile-phone users out of a population of 63 million. Several telecom operators have forecast there will be 5 million more users this year. Suchai said Motorola could be interested in setting up a handset factory here, which it can use as a springboard to tap the Indochina market and other Southeast Asian countries. "We're willing to support its investment here," Suchai said. Motorola has four manufacturing sites in the Asia-Pacific region: two in China, and one each in Malaysia and Singapore. It is currently setting up a US$100-million (Bt3.8 billion) plant in India to make mobile phones and telecom network equipment. Motorola claims to command the second-largest share of the Thai mobile-phone market.
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