With Foxconn, SP city wants to be Brazil’s biggest technology center
After the announcement of a new Foxconn factory, the world’s biggest manufacturer of electronics, Itu, in rural São Paulo, wants to become Brazil’s biggest technology center.
China’s Foxconn says it will invest R$ 1 billion in Itu –the company is the second major Asian technology company to arrive in Itu in the second half of 2012. Lenovo, the world’s second-largest computer maker, will start production in November.
“With these two leaders, Itu is on its way to become a technology superpower,” says José Rubens Nunes Gomes, Secretary of Development.
Yesterday, Foxconn signed a protocol with the government of São Paulo state and Itu’s city hall to build its ninth factory in Brazil.
The Itu factory will make mostly parts, and will substitute imports that supply Apple, HP, Dell, Sony Vaio and EMC in Brazil.
Folha verified that Foxconn’s business plan estimates R$ 1.8 billion in earnings in the first year.
The two say equipment suppliers also are negotiating to build factories in Itu. A South Korean company will make batteries for notebooks and cell phones.
“Itu has established itself as a major technology center of São Paulo and Brazil. That’s good, because the city has well-paid jobs, research and development,” says Luciano Almeida, president of Investe SP investment-attraction agency.
The city’s location helps to attract companies. Foxconn, for example, built its new factory in Itu because it is close to its factories in Jundiaí, Sorocaba and Indaiatuba, the Viracopos airport (Campinas), the greater São Paulo consumer market and the Santos port.
Itu’s city hall is aggressive in granting tax benefits, exempting companies from IPTU (property tax) for up to 12 years and reimbursing taxes. It has received 14 major companies since 2005.
To take advantage of the technological potential, in 2013, Itu will receive an innovation center to develop new technologies, where the research and development centers of Foxconn and Lenovo will be. “You know, everything in Itu is big,” says Foxconn’s president in Brazil, Henry Cheng.
(Helton Simões Gomes | Folha de S. Paulo Internacional)
