Nokia said it is planning to set up a new manufacturing site near Hanoi in northern Vietnam, with an initial investment of approximately EUR200m.
The Vietnamese government and Nokia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) marking the beginning of a phase of preparations ahead of the targeted opening of the new plant in 2012.
The new manufacturing, adding to Nokia’s existing ten global sites, is expected to meet the growth in demand for feature phones, as well as help the company to deliver a contemporary mobile experience to the next billion consumers all over the world.
Nokia executive vice president Esko Aho said only about 30% of the world’s population is currently online, and the company believes it can play a major role in connecting the next billion not just to their first phone but to their first internet and application experience.
Nokia senior vice president Juha Putkiranta said this new manufacturing site will play a key role in their effort to connect the next billion to the web.
Nokia has a global manufacturing network stretching from Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) to Europe (Finland, Hungary, Romania and the UK) and Asia (China, India and Korea).
