LG promises to keep RI its home appliance hub

LG promises to keep RI its home appliance hub

Evi Mariani
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

PT LG Electronics Indonesia vows to keep Indonesia as its
regional manufacturing hub for home appliances -- such as
television sets, refrigerators and air-conditioners -- for
Southeast Asia.

"Sixty five percent of our total production capacity is
absorbed by Indonesia's market, and the remainder is exported to
ASEAN countries," stated an LG press release made available on
Thursday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade
Agreement (AFTA), which came into effect in January this year, is
meant to turn the region into a single market. Ideally, it means
multinational firms operating in one ASEAN country can sell their
products throughout the region virtually tariff-free.

LG is a South Korean-based company, whose electronic plants in
Asia located in China, South Korea and Indonesia. In terms of
total capacity, China's plant is the largest, Indonesia's the
second and South Korea's the third.

In Indonesia, LG first built its refrigerators and televisions
plant in Tangerang. Later, it built an audio-video plant in
Cibitung, West Java.

"From year to year, LG Indonesia's investment has been
steadily increasing," said LG Indonesia's general manager Moon Ik
Jang on Thursday. "Our investment for research and product
development reached only US$20 million last year, so we increased
the investment for research and development to $25 million in
2003."

LG Indonesia estimated the company would absorb 2,000 workers
in 2003, up 30 percent from 1,500 jobs last year.

It also expected a 14 percent growth in television sales to
630,000 units in 2003 from 550,000 in 2002. Next year, the TV
sales are forecast to jump to 860,000.

In a bid to boost services for its customers, LG Indonesia
provides a free-of-charge call center to handle complaints from
its customers.