Global brands have started to de-couple from China when it comes to manufacturing: Samsung India boss JB Park

NEW DELHI: Samsung India boss JB Park has said that global brands have started to “de-couple” from China when it comes to large-scale manufacturing as attractions such as govt’s production-linked incentive schemes as well as a large and growing consumer base boost India’s business standing for multinational giants.

In an interview to TOI, Park – who has steered Samsung’s India business over the past three years (in total he has spent eight years in the country) amidst stiff competition from Chinese majors Vivo and Oppo as well as American Apple, also applauds India’s engineering and software prowess that he says will power the Korean giant’s global product innovations, including work on semiconductors.

India currently contributes around 10% to Samsung’s worldwide revenues (it had a turnover of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in FY25 at a growth of 11%), and Park said this is only going to get bigger as adoption of new technological innovations on the product side – specially built around AI – is one of the highest in India when compared to global usage.

“It is already happening. In my eight years here, I have seen the transformation. It's a matter of time before global brands de-couple with China and bring more opportunity to India,” Park said when asked about India’s chances in attracting global manufacturing work in competition to China and Vietnam. “The PLI policy is enabling this. Gurugram looks like Singapore to me now.”

He said the govt has been taking steps to ease the business environment for MNC brands. “The govt is already working on PLI 2.0. Regulatory areas like BIS are being re-looked at to make business faster and more friendly.”

Adding to this has been the GST rate cuts that have boosted consumption not just for large-screen televisions and ACs (where duty came down), but even across the broader economy. “It triggered domestic consumption which helps create jobs.”

On Indian’s engineering talent, he said this is something that is being harnessed by Samsung, including in work related to semiconductors. “India's strongest resource is brilliant engineers. You see, today around 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs are Indian nationals, and that's just the start of India’s potential. Software and AI must be the strength of India in the next 30 years.”

Samsung currently has three R&D centers in India – at Delhi, Noida, and Bangalore -- with more than 10,000 engineers. Asked whether they work just for the needs of the Indian market or even on global innovations, he said, “It's global. What we develop here is for the global platform. Everything from mobile (phones), consumer electronics, TV, and refrigerators.”

On semiconductors, he said the company has already started the “R&D part of it” in Bangalore. However, he did not comment on any plans for setting up a fabrication unit.

Asked about competition from Chinese brands who have taken a significant part of market share from Samsung, he said there is a need to check unfair pricing which has seen many countries slap tariffs. “Competition may sell under market price, and then other countries put up tariffs to protect their industry.”

On Apple, that has been swiftly growing its India engagement not just for global manufacturing but also in local sales, Park said it may end up as a fad and demand for Brand Apple may start coming down. “Holding an Apple logo is a trend, but I think it won't prevail for more than five years.”

Park also said while India has an adequate strength of cutting-edge engineering talent, the country should be careful when talking about the advantage of low-cost manufacturing. Automation and robotics will take the sheen off from the low-cost shopfloor labour that the country boasts of, and thus the govt should look at developing manpower which is more proficient in automation, AI, and efficient manufacturing processes.


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