Tuesday, February 14 2006 17:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Barcelona: German engineering conglomerate Siemens plans to set up a manufacturing base in India to make telecom networking equipment, India's Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said today (Feb 14,2006).

"Siemens has plans to make telecom networking equipment in India," he told PTI after a meeting with top Siemens officials on the sidelines of GSM Association conference here.

Maran said in the last ten months, many global players including telecom and IT giants have come forward and set up manufacutring and research facilities in India.

This includes Alcatel, AMD, Ericsson, Cisco, Flextronics, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, LG and Samsung, he said, adding that these global IT and telecom firms have together committed an investment of eight billion dollars.

"Never before have so many telecom giants entered India in such a short period. I hope this encouraging trend will continue in future as well," he said.

"I hope we will be able to realise our dream of seeing India as an important regional hub, not only for domestic supplies but also for servicing other countries in the region," he added.