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How Maharashtra govt secured the $5 billion Foxconn deal
The extra mile that the Maharashtra government led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis went to please the Foxconn delegation led by founder-chief executive officer (CEO) Terry Gou wasn’t in vain.
Seven meetings, two over dinner and one over lunch, a chef borrowed from the Chinese consulate to prepare authentic Chinese cuisine, a gift of a Ganesha statue plus a helping hand to secure passage for a divine idol through customs at Mumbai airport.
The extra mile that the Maharashtra government led by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis went to please the Foxconn delegation led by founder-chief executive officer (CEO) Terry Gou wasn’t in vain. On Saturday, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer agreed to invest $5 billion in Maharashtra over five years—the biggest single foreign investment in the western Indian state.
Maharashtra was competing not just with Indian states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for the investment, but also countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia that have a reputation for being investment-friendly and boast a greater cultural affinity with the Taiwanese because of their large ethnic Chinese population.
