India set to dictate mobile phone handset market

New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) Holding a big business opportunity of 15 billion dollar in the next decade, India will dictate the manufacturing and market for the mobile telephone handsets just three years from now when it starts contibuting 30 per cent of the net GSM and CDMA subscribers across the world, an expert paper has said.

By 2010, India has the potential of having a telecom subscriber base of 400 million making out a strong case for the country to become a global manufacturing hub for the telecom handsets, a paper by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Asocham) has said.

A SWOT (Strength-Weakness-Oportunities-Threat) analysis shows that along with a booming growth in the domestic telecom market, the closure of factories in the developed countries like the US, Europe, is forcing the multinational companies to move their manufacturing locations to countries like India, China and the ASEAN region.

Seeking corrections in the government policies, the chamber said the domestic manufacturing should be strengthened so as to meet the telecom requirements of emerging markets in neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

''In view of WTO stipulations for elimination of duties on this segment, the telecom equipment manufacturing will need a special sectoral treatment rather than being governed by general policy framework,'' ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat said while releasing the paper.

Growth of the telecom manufacturing industry in India has not been consistent with the the increase in the subscriber base and the potential in the market for services.

''The new strategy should support the equipment manufacturing with a slew of measures that can sustain the domestic subscribers' demand and stablish a critical size of the Indian hardware manufacturing sector'', Mr Rawat added.

The chamber urged the government to set up a National Large Contract Manufacturing Organisation which will act as a base for multinational companies operating to outsource their equipment needs.

Firms like Ericsson, Siemens, Alcatel and Cisco could use such an organisation to source their equipment demands.

Such an initiative in India would help build a national asset in the manufacturing area.

Alternatively, based on a public-private partnership model, a national large-contract manufacturing facility could be set up to act as a common global quality resource to support multi-dimensional.

UNI MP/PC BD1737