India got another country to export goods and this time it is the models of Nokia.Finland, the land of Nokia, could soon import mobile phones from India.
“I can foresee a day when Finland could begin importing mobile phones from India”, where Nokia has set up a $150 million manufacturing plant near Chennai, said Matti Pietarinen, deputy director general in the Finnish ministry of trade and industry.
“I can foresee a situation where Nokia begins sourcing more expensive models (from its Chennai facility) for European and US markets and less expensive ones for Asia and the Middle East,” Pietarinen told IANS in an interview here.
Nokia, which has plans to develop India as one of its major exporting hubs, plans to sell four billion handsets globally by 2010, a majority of which will be in emerging Asian markets like India and China.
India is strategically a very important market for Nokia. The telecom industry in India is growing at a rate like never before, with some three million mobile handsets being purchased every month.
Nokia is not the only factor in pushing Finland-India trade that currently stands at a little over 400 million euros (Rs.21 billion), the balance tilting in favour of this Nordic nation.
“The prospects are positive,” Pietarinen maintained, though he would not hazard an estimate on what the figures could rise to.
“I would say the prospects are rather positive in the short and medium term and in the long term anything can happen,” he added.
Maybe this will also help in bonding in a new friendly relationship with the said country.