NEW DELHI: Foxconn Technology Group is set to invest over $2 billion (Rs 12,800 crore) initially to establish manufacturing plants in India over the next five years to produce mobile devices, TVs, electronic products, batteries and key electronic components, among others, which could make it the biggest foreign investor in the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme so far.“They are planning to make some 400 million handsets here. Half of these will be manufactured for the Indian market and the rest for exports to Middle East, Africa and Russia,” a top official familiar with the matter told ET.ET had earlier reported that Foxconn is looking to invest at least $2 billion initially to set up 10-12 manufacturing plants over the next five years.Separately, the manufacturer of the iconic Apple iPhones is also planning to set up one or more data centres and some fab units over the next 10 years.Speaking at a press conference, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said India offered “good investment opportunities” for a 5-10 year horizon for the Taiwanese company, which has been enthused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. “We see India as a manufacturing, expansion and export base. We are looking at it for the long term.”Without giving specific investment figures or the number of plants that the company would set up, Gou said the world’s largest contract manufacturer would look at producing phones, TVs, precision mechanics, batteries, data centres, storage, switch routers, among others, and would look at local partners for different projects, which will be set up in stages.Foxconn is already working with ecommerce player Snapdeal, India’s No. 2 mobile phone vendor Micromax and refurbished goods e-tailer Greendust, and also considers the Adani Group as a partner. “Adani is a very important partner for us,” Gou said.In a statement to the stock exchanges, Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group, said it’s in talks with Foxconn to form a manufacturing joint venture (JV) but no agreement had been signed as yet. The company, however, did not clarify on the nature of the JV or the products that it will manufacture. Sources said Foxconn could locate a plant and data centre at Adani’s SEZ in Mundra, and use the Adani Port to bring in heavy machinery.Gou added that Foxconn will work very closely with Greendust as recycling products is the future. “We can share technology with them. They can use supply chain.”Gou, on a three-day visit to the country, made a two-and-a halfhour presentation on Monday night after a dinner meeting with the prime minister and another on Tuesday to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, explaining the company’s India plans. Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, was present at both the meetings.Sources said the presentation showed that the company would establish its supply chain and the entire ecosystem ranging from software, hardware to ancillary units in the country as it prepares to develop India as a solid manufacturing and export base. Gou later confirmed this.The Taiwan-headquartered company has a client list that includes Cisco, Dell, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. It also manufactures phones for a number of global brands, including Apple, BlackBerry, Xiaomi, Motorola, Sony and Huawei, apart from Indian brands such as Micromax.“The meetings were very good. We have been having some very good initial discussions and we want to get down to the execution and rollouts of all the plans that we have,” Vincent Tong, chairman of FIH Mobile Limited, the investment arm of Foxconn, told ET.“Given the right timing and policy, definitely we’ve been expressing very strong interest and good ambitions to help India gain wings.” Sources told ET that Gou’s meeting on Monday night with PM Modi was decisive in the company firming up its India plans.“Gou was in a dilemma regarding investments in India but the meeting with the PM clinched the deal,” one of the sources said. The two seemed to have hit off really well with Gou profusely praising Modi and his vision of India. The two discussed several matters, including their birth dates.“They discovered they were born in the same year — 1950,” sources said. Gou declared that he was keen to come to India but needed some convincing. He was apprehensive of investing, given the beating India’s image had taken among foreign investors in the past years.A wish list comprising tariff protection to encourage domestic manufacturing, tax predictability for the next several years and monetary incentives to pull investments from China was also shared.“Logistics, supply chain, power and other efficiencies need to be aligned” for Foxconn to set up its plants, Gou said. About 18-20 presidents of Foxconn’s different business units including mobile phones, networks, televisions, etc — which is about 40 per cent of the group’s total business heads — came along with Gou, indicating the company’s seriousness and intent towards investing in India.