Lava ramps up efforts to take on rivals in India, enters Egypt

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) In an emerging smartphone market like India, you can't control the competition be it from China or elsewhere, but you can build devices that are affordable and par excellence which will speak for themselves, a top executive from domestic smartphone maker Lava has said.

Announcing its entry into Egypt where it will offer reliable and innovative products through a joint venture with Egypt-based Easy Group, Hari Om Rai, Chairman and Managing Director of Lava, told IANS that the firm is ready to give its rivals a fair yet tough competition in months to come.

According to an MoU signed between Rai and Asser Salama, Chairman, Easy Group, in the capital, the two companies will set up a complete end-to-end business operations headquartered in Cairo.

"The MoU is aimed at enhancing productivity, reducing costs and accelerating mobile phone adoption in the market by delivering new and better products to Egyptian citizens," Salama told reporters here.

The tie-up will enable Lava to export its products from India to Egypt while Easy Group will provide necessary support to promote and distribute products in that Middle East country.

Lava will also explore opportunities to set up manufacturing facilities and assembly units in Egypt which will also help the company export products to the North African region.

The partnership will create 2,000 direct and 5,000 indirect employment opportunities in the next six months and over 10,000 employment opportunities in the next five years.

Lava is also strengthening manufacturing in India to cater to both domestic and international markets.

The company has earmarked an overall investment of Rs 2,615 crore for ramping up the existing manufacturing units along with setting up more manufacturing facilities to increase the overall production capacity to 216 million units per annum in the next five to eight years.