agricultural products manufacturers

Life’s Good” for LG India head Soon Kwon but he wishes the economy were in better health. Kwon, 55, believes that to beat the slowdown there is a need to engage a large part of the population in industriali zation. According to heavy dependence on agricul ture, and even FDI, is not right way forward if wants to return to a higher growth trajectory and, importantly, match up to China. The slowdown has already made Korean consumer giant LG Electronics rethink some of its planned investments for India. “Regarding new investments for plant and manufacturing, we would have to make necessary adjustments,” says Kwon, who has had stints at the company’s headquarters in South Korea apart from Australia, US and Canada. “The first months of this year were more encouraging than last year. During the initial months last year, everybody was worried about the overall macro-economic situation, mostly the rupee value. But now that the rupee is slowly stabilizing, LG feels a little better in the overall business sense,” says Kwon. Kwon feels the government should put more emphasis on industrialization as “India’s growth rate has fallen drastically and this has had an effect on the overall economy”. “The dependency on agriculture and FDI is too high. Until we have a global industrialization plan, I cannot see how it will be possible to achieve an economic growth rate of 8-9%. As a Agricultural products manufacturers, we want to see some radical and rational moves towards industrialization.” Agricultural equipments manufacturers He says that the poor economic performance is having an effect on how corporates view India. “Disposable incomes are not rising even though the prices of products are. Three or four years ago, everyone expected consumer demand to double in the next five years, but it seems like demand is falling,” Kwon says. LG has four major business divisions in India – television, home appliances, air conditioners and mobile phones. Home appliances contribute about 50% to its revenues, TVs about 35%, ACs 10% and mobiles chip in the least. Is the company worried that mobiles form a small portion of its business, especially considering that most of its competitors like Samsung and Sony bank so much on the mobile phone business? “Different companies may have different business portfolios. They may be more successful than us in mobiles but LG is obviously the leader in other segments,” Kwon says. LG is globally re-working its strategy on mobile phones. “The whole mobile business mechanism is more dynam- than other segments, and it is also a very global business. Last year, we shifted our mobile priorities and decided to pull out of lower-budget phones, and instead focus on smartphones. Ever since then, our mobile business has started growing. This year, we can grow it to 10% of our over- business,” Kwon says. Apart from a sluggish , corporates in India – including LG – have been having a run-in with tax authorities. “I do not think that this will impact our business at all… I do think that the government should spend more time in allocating resources for industrialization. I do not know to what scale the government would go further, but this tax issue is a worrying factor.” agricultural products exporters Kwon feels that the government needs to come out with policies that aid corporate growth, which is a necessary step to compete against China. “If you look at the global market, India may be the only country to ultimately compete against China. The role of the Indian government is very important here as the economy does not grow on its own... how to grow further and how to reduce the gap between India and China will depend on how we grow in the industrial sector.” When he is not slugging it out in the Indian market for business, Kwon loves to play guitar and join his wife for shopping. Having spearheaded the India operations of LG for the past two years, Kwon has also developed a taste for Indian food, which is evident from his fondness for chicken tikka and naan