Taiwan notebook maker Inventec plans China plant

Taiwan's Inventec Corp, the world's fourth largest contract notebook computer maker, said Monday it will spend 800 million US dollars to build a plant in southwestern China.

Inventec said in a statement it had signed an agreement for the five-year investment project with the government of Chongqing over the weekend.

Inventec said the Chongqing plant will become its second China manufacturing base after an existing plant in Shanghai.

In the initial phase of the investment, the Chongqing facility will focus on notebook computer manufacturing and then expand to servers, mobile communications and software production, Inventec said.

The Taiwanese company said it expects the Chongqing plant will create 10 billion dollars' worth of annual output five years after the investment is completed.

It was not clear from the statement when the plant would become operational, or whether it would be a joint venture. Inventec officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

(c) 2009 AFP