Investment in the Pou Chen sports shoe brand will create nearly 20,000 jobs in Tamil Nadu over 12 years. 

 India’s state government announced Monday that a  subsidiary of Pou Chen, the world’s largest branded athletic footwear maker, will invest 23.02 billion rupees ($280.86 million) to set up a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu.

The Taiwanese footwear manufacturer for brands such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance, and Timberland produced and shipped more than 272 million pairs of shoes worldwide in the fiscal year 2022, up nearly 14% from a year earlier. It already has factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. 

 The investment, which would create around 20,000 jobs in Tamil Nadu over a 12-year period, comes almost a year after Taiwan’s Hong Fu Group bagged a Rs 10 billion contract to manufacture footwear in the southern state. 

 Tamil Nadu accounted for 45 percent of India’s footwear exports in the last five years, according to a report by a government agency. Many brands, such as Giorgio Armani and Gucci, produced their own products or obtained raw materials from the state. 

 Other global names like Apple suppliers Foxconn company, Salcomp, and Pegatron have also ramped up production in Tamil Nadu and the country, in general, to diversify away from China and Taiwan.

Separately, Pou Chen planned to cut around 6,000 jobs at its Ho Chi Minh City plant in Vietnam due to low demand, Reuters reported in February, citing two local officials.

Pou Chen’s vice president, George Liu, in a meeting with Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, said: “We hope this would be the first of many investments to come (in India).”

The speculation may make 20,000 occupations in Tamil Nadu over a period of 12 long time, the news organization Reuters detailed. The venture would come nearly a year after another Taiwanese footwear producer, the Hong Fu Bunch, marked a bargain to contribute Rs 1,000 crore to set up a footwear unit in Tamil Nadu. 

An MoU was marked with the best authorities of the company and the State speculation advancement office Direction Tamil Nadu in April’s final year. This MoU was pointed at making 20,000 employees with the lion’s share of workers being ladies once the fabricating plant is completely operational.