Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven is confident that the commitment and contribution of Swedish companies to India with grow alongside a deeper partnership between Sweden and India.

He was in Pune at Tetra Pak and Ericsson during the last leg of his two-day visit to India, Lofven said, “Sweden is well into Make in India already and will be more into Make-in-India. I can assure that we are here for the long term.”

Pune is one of the major investment and industrial hubs for Swedish companies in India and those with manufacturing facilities here include SKF, Alfa Laval, Sandvik and Atlas Copco. While the India facility of Tetra Pak is its largest outside of Sweden, communications, technology and services major Ericsson is setting up a new facility in Pune that is scheduled to go on stream around September.

Lofven pointed out that companies like Ericsson had experience in smart cities in other countries. “That will be very useful here in India,” he said, adding that he was leaving India with a sense of optimism.

Earlier, Paolo Colella, Head of Region India, Ericsson said that the new facility would be a high tech plant that will produce the entire range of current and future products for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies as well as radio and microwave products.

“The first purpose will be to serve the Indian market which is booming. We will also export to South East Asia and Africa,” he said adding that the initial investment at Pune will be $15 million. The total employment the plant will generate will be 1,000, including 150-300 direct employees on site in addition to suppliers.

With a total strength of 22,000, India houses the largest employee base for Ericsson worldwide.

Speaking at the Tetra Pak facility, Kandarp Singh, Tetra Pak South Asia Markets said that the India plant, could run out of capacity earlier than planned.

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