TAIPEI -- Foxconn, one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers, plans to increase its investment in Central China's Henan province after moving factories to Henan and Southwest China's Sichuan province last year.
Foxconn plans to invest in 19 new projects in Henan, including factories that will produce camera lenses and LED lighting rigs, as well as more branches of Foxconn's retail chain Cybermart, Terry Guo, chairman of the Foxconn Technology Group, said during an economic forum held in Taipei on Friday.
"We are going to fully expand our investment in Henan, using Zhengzhou (the provincial capital) as the base," Guo said.
Guo did not reveal the total amount of investments for these projects.
Foxconn produces iPhones and iPads for Apple, computers for Dell and devices for other well-known tech companies around the world.
Based in Taiwan, Foxconn has operated factories in the Chinese mainland for years. One of its largest factories is in the city of Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province, which was troubled by a series of employee suicides last year.
The company began to build new factories in the country's central and western provinces last year. Two factories were built in Zhengzhou, including one that produces Apple's iPhone 4, as well as one in Sichuan province's capital city of Chengdu.
Henan's excellent geographic location, well-developed infrastructure, rich supply of skilled workers and stable energy supply have created good conditions for Taiwan investors, Guo said.
A delegation of 350 people, headed by Henan Governor Guo Gengmao, is currently visiting Taiwan.
The delegation held a forum in Taipei on Friday to promote the "Central Plains Economic Zone," which may include Henan and several parts of neighboring provinces in central China.
Lien Chan, honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party, said at the forum's opening ceremony that more than 80 percent of Taiwan's investors have gathered in the mainland's coastal region, but that many of them have been thinking of moving inland due to labor shortages in the coastal areas.
According to the Henan local government, trade between Henan and Taiwan reached $500 million last year, double the amount reached in 2009.
