Vijayawada: Terming Andhra Pradesh as a strategic area for expansion of supply chain operations, the minister for IT and electronics Nara Lokesh invited the ZF Foxconn company to set up its unit in the state.

Lokesh, who is in Davos attending the World Economic Forum summit, on the second day of his visit had a meeting at Belvedere hotel with the chief executive officer (CEO) of ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules company, Eike Dorff.

Stating that Andhra Pradesh is one of the regions wherein the automobile sector is developing rapidly, Lokesh informed the CEO that the most popular car manufacturing companies like Kia and the Isuzu have already established their units in the state.

The IT minister also told Eike Dorff that bus manufacturing companies like Ashok Leyland, Veera and Azad Mobility are also planning to expand their original equipment manufacturing (OEMs) units in Andhra Pradesh as the state has a total positive ecosystem for investments.

Cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Anantapur are the most strategic places for setting up automobile manufacturing and supply chain, Lokesh told the CEO and invited him to establish the ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules manufacturing unit in Andhra Pradesh.

The wide roads, ports and airports in the state will certainly help improve supply chain operations, he said and informed that the state government is focussing on providing employment to the youth along with sharpening their skills. The IT minister sought the cooperation of the ZF Foxconn to extend its cooperation for setting up engineering and skilling centres in the State.

Informing Lokesh that the ZF Foxconn Chassis Modules and Hero Motors joint venture is already maintaining a plant in Chennai, besides extending crucial global customer services to the BMW, the company CEO Eike Dorff said that it has set a target to take the transactions to 8.8 billion dollars by 2029 in India which are currently 4.4 billion dollars. The CEO said that a positive decision will soon be taken after discussing the proposal made by the Andhra Pradesh government at a board meeting.