LG to invest $300 mn

New Delhi, July 19: South Korean electronics giant LG is planning to invest about 300 million US dollars in India over the next ten years...

New Delhi, July 19: South Korean electronics giant LG is planning to invest about 300 million US dollars in India over the next ten years, undeterred by the South East Asian currency crisis.

“We have absolutely no plans to freeze investments or rollback investments, in India. On the contrary, we are going to step up our operations in India as there is a huge market for consumer electronics and home appliances,” said Rajiv Karwal, vice president, marketing and sales, LG Electronics India.

LG set up shop in India in May last year, investing about 60 million US dollars, which is to be stepped up to 150 million US dollars by 2000 AD, he said.

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Karwal added that his company was not hit by sanctions as it had no plans at the moment to raise any debt from overseas institutions.

“Most of our debt is raised in India itself and we have tied up with domestic financial institutions like Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) for our needs,” he said.

“Since we believe in large volumesales for sustaining our operations, we do not anticipate any problems as far as business is concerned”, he said, adding, however, that his company was among the first to raise prices after the budget. Karwal said LG would introduce new models of colour television sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens, air conditioners, video disc players, computers and multimedia products.

Karwa indicated that some of their operations might be shifted from Thailand, which has been one of the worst hit in the South East Asian meltdown.