Apple Inc. will begin assembling iPhones in India by the end of April, a regional minister says, heightening its focus on the world’s fastest-growing major smartphone market as growth slows elsewhere.

The U.S. company has tapped Taiwan’s Wistron Corp. to put together its phones in the tech capital of Bangalore in Karnataka, said Priyank Kharge, the state’s information technology minister. Apple executives met with him in January and confirmed the timeline, he said in an interview.

The start of iPhone assembly in India comes after months of speculation on Apple’s plan for the market, which is led by rival Samsung Electronics Co. It signals a renewed focus on the country, where it just scrapes into the top 10, as growth begins to slow in China and other more mature markets. The Cupertino, California-based company is said to have put forward a long list of demands in negotiations with India’s federal government, including a 15-year tax holiday to import components and equipment.

Apple doesn’t manufacture devices itself, but rather partners with contract manufacturers to handle the capital intensive demands of building factories and hiring staff. Its Indian phones will be assembled through a plant on Bangalore’s outskirts operated by Wistron, a Taiwanese contract manufacturer, bypassing usual partners such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Ltd. Hon Hai, the main listed arm of Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, is said to be an option in future.

“In the longer term, it’s a great move,” Cook said on this week’s post-earnings call. “We are in discussions on a number of things, including retail stores, and fully intend to invest significantly in the country.”

Source: bloomberg