$289 mln plant in VN to be operational soon
Print 
During his visit to Singapore to participate in a promotional campaign to regain Nokia’s market share and enhance its brand awareness in East Asia – Pacific region, Nokia President and CEO Mr. Stephen Elop had an exchange withTuoi Tre about Nokia’s investment in Vietnam.
He said that in March 2011, Nokia announced its plan for factory construction in Vietnam. The Vietnam-based factory will be Nokia’s 11th factory worldwide with the initial investment of about 200 million euros ($289 million) which continues to rise in the next stage.
The factory will have the same scale as those in India and China. Initially planned, the construction will start in the 3rd quarter of 2011 and quickly come into operation in 2012.
"Depending on the procedures, laws and government support, I believe we can be on schedule," he added.
Why was Vietnam chosen by Nokia as the 10th country for its factory construction?
We have set out many criteria when considering locations for new factory construction and we carefully evaluated which country where our factory would be located.
Vietnam has emerged as a country with good location and stable infrastructure development. So, it helped Vietnam to become an outstanding candidate for Nokia’s new factory construction consideration.
Nokia’s factory will be based in VSIP Bac Ninh urban, industrial and service complex. We highly appreciate its infrastructure and added values supported by the industrial park management board to investors.
Besides, when submitting project documentation, we also received the support of Bac Ninh Province People’s Committee.
The new factory will play a vital role in our effort to connect the next 1 billion people to the Internet.
Did Nokia anticipate difficulties in terms of human resources or supporting industry when it prepared for a factory of such scale?
Nokia has become a brand of choice for many Vietnamese with user-friend, easy-to-use, affordable phone devices together with a widespread customer care system. We have received the support from the Vietnamese government and other local partners for the factory to be deployed early.
Once operational, the factory will need thousands of workers. At present, together with the project deployment, we have set up our own project management board to prepare the local workforce.
Which phone types do Nokia plan to produce in Vietnam?
The essential purpose of the new production facility will be bringing advanced mobile experiences to billions of consumers in the region and the world. Therefore, the factory will have flexible operations and initially focus on feature phones.
Why did Nokia only invest in Vietnam until recently? Is it because the Vietnamese phone market has just matured?
In the next years, Vietnam, in particular, and South East Asia – Pacific countries, in general, will be fast growing markets. And we need to accelerate to meet this demand.
With our strategy of connecting the next billion people to the Internet, we recognized the growth in BRIICA countries including Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, Africa and other emerging markets.
You have mentioned the strategy of connecting the next billion people. Which role will Vietnam play in this strategy and what is the basis for the figure of one billion people?
We need to clarify two issues to answer the question.
Firstly, at whom we will target and secondly, what services to come along will be. At present, the youth no longer connect to the Internet via desktop. Especially, those aged from 17 to 25 in emerging markets, such as China, India and Vietnam, tend to use personal devices to connect to Internet any time, at anywhere.
They form half of the next billion people that Nokia wants to “connect”. This consumer segment may not own hi-tech devices but they are our future targets.
And the second half are those who find phones as supporting tools for their work and personal lives. Through the phones, a farmer can know more information about crops and weather, a pregnant woman can update helpful information about dos and don’ts.
Vietnam is an important market in this strategy with a young population and a high rate in technological development.
It is estimated that about 3.7 billion people do not own a phone globally and a half of which cannot access to Internet. And Nokia hopes to reduce the above number in the future.
