Although Chinese firm Haier Electrical Appliances Ltd is still looking for land to set up an assembly plant here, it has started expanding its range of products available to the local market.
Businessman Brian James, the firm’s local partner, had told Stabroek News in February that the company will set up an assembly plant for laptops and computers here and plans to establish an industrial park in an investment pegged at US$10 million.
Last week, he said that the project is still on the cards and the equipment imported is in storage. “We’re now negotiating with public and private entities to acquire suitable land,” James said.
However, he added that the company is expanding its range of products available here and is hoping to bring in more Haier products. He said that accessories for the computers supplied to the government have been brought in while there are other Haier products available such as tablets, touchscreen computers, among other items.
Last year, Haier won a US$7.56 million contract for the supply of 27,000 netbooks for the government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project. Under the project, the government hopes to distribute 90,000 computers to poor families over two years. Among the terms of the contract, is an 18 months warranty period and the company has set up the location for this purpose as well as the sale of Haier products.
James had told Stabroek News that Haier hopes to take advantage of Guyana’s bilateral agreements with places like Brazil and the Union of South American states to sell the computers manufactured here to those countries. The businessman at the time said that they were looking for suitable land to set up the assembly plant for the laptops and computers and hope to set it up in about 18 months. He had said that the assembly line conveyor belt, trolleys, and other technological equipment were already in the country.
Last week, he declined to give a timeframe for when the company hopes to begin the project but stressed that it will happen. “We are in the process of doing that. But it will happen. We have to work out the modalities of everything,” he said, citing cost of construction, electricity and so on. This will depend on the acquiring of land, he said.
In addition, James said that the company’s service centre, apart from servicing the netbooks supplied under the OLPF programme and its own brand will be able to service non-Haier products. He said that apart from the OLPF, there are other parallel lines of business that the company is entering.
James had told this newspaper in February that Haier plans to establish a technology park here within five years. “We are working right now on formulating the plan,” he said at the time. “We’re looking at about US$10 million and hopefully direct employment will be about 500 but there will be a lot of spin-offs,” he had said. The businessman said the project will be done in phases and added that total employment potential could be 1,000.
