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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Feb. 8

CHINA'S largest appliances maker, Haier, on Tuesday announced its foray into the fast growing Indian mobile handset market with the launch of its seven GSM mobile sets here.

"With the launch of our seven mobile sets comprising entry-level as well as high end models, we have set a target to sell five lakh GSM mobile sets with a turnover of Rs 250 crore in one year," Mr T.K. Banerjee, President & CEO of Haier Appliances (India) Pvt Ltd, said while addressing a press conference.

Haier India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Haier Group, plans to achieve a growth of almost 60 per cent in the mobile handset segment.

"We have set a challenging task for ourselves to achieve a 60 per cent growth in our mobile telephony segment with an intention to occupy a slot in the top three mobile handset companies," said Mr Banerjee.

Haier India, which entered the domestic market a year ago, has launched its GSM mobile sets first for the North Indian market and will subsequently enter the southern, eastern and western markets.

The new offerings are priced between Rs 3,654 and Rs 14,950.

The company is also planning to launch its CDMA handsets in the country and is in talks with a few telecom operators for the same.

The company intends to set up a consumer electronics manufacturing unit in India with an investment of about $5 million, to strengthen its presence in the country.

"We will finalise the location for our proposed plant by May-June, where we would initially manufacture colour televisions," Mr Banerjee said.

The new plant would initially cater to the Indian market and "we will gradually expand the reach to South East Asian countries," he said.

The company also said that it is exploring benefits arising from the Free Trade Agreement with Thailand as it has a manufacturing unit it the country.

Haier India is currently doing a monthly business of about Rs 25 crore and is targeting to grow by 60 per cent next year.

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