Foxconn to invest up to $1b in Indonesia

Taiwan-headquartered technology giant Foxconn has signed a letter of intent to invest up to $1 billion in Indonesia as it seeks to diversify production away from the Chinese mainland, officials said Sunday.

Foxconn, also known by its Taipei-based mother company Hon Hai Precision Industry, which is the world's largest contract electronics maker, said the investments would be in Jakarta province, which has better infrastructure than other regions of the country.

"We plan to come up with detailed investment plans for the Indonesian and Jakarta authorities in three months," a Hon Hai official told AFP on Sunday, without giving her name.

The investments would be completed in three to five years in areas ranging from R&D, electronics software design and Internet business to manufacturing and assembly of electronic products, she said.

The move is part of the conglomerate's efforts to diversify investments from the Chinese mainland where it has set up huge manufacturing facilities to make products for Apple - including iPhones - as well as Sony and Nokia.

The group employs about 1 million workers in the mainland, roughly half of them based at its main facility in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province.

But officials from the group said the mainland was gradually losing its attraction as a global factory featuring cheap labor and land.

Foxconn in late 2013 also announced that it was planning to spend $40 million in manufacturing and research facilities in the US.

The group has production facilities in more than 10 countries and regions, including Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico.