OREANDA-NEWS. The Japanese multinational expands its international participation investing approximately 5 million dollars in Valle del Cauca through the construction of an optic fiber cables plant.

With over 125 years of market history, the Furukawa Electric Group comes to Colombia through the construction of an optic fiber cables production plant, to be installed in the Pacific Duty Free Zone, in the municipality of Palmira, Valle del Cauca. Preoperational activities are expected to start in mid-August of this year and the first production in February 2014. This plant will be the first of its kind in the Andean region and the third Furukawa telecommunications plant in South America.

Although Furukawa has been selling structured cabling for the last five years in Colombia through its distributors, the construction of the optic fiber cables plant will be an internal operation of the Japanese multinational in our country. The decision to settle in Valle del Cauca complies with the Department’s strategic location, which will allow importation of raw materials and exportation of finished products to countries located in the Pacific Ocean, with this plant being the production and distribution hub for the Andean and Central American region.

The direct foreign investment project has been analyzed since 2011 by Proexport and Invest Pacific, together with the Japanese company through its branch in Brazil and follow-up visits to Cali and Palmira by Furukawa representatives. At Valle de Cauca, the Japanese company?s employees had the chance to learn and expand their knowledge of the Colombian market trends through several meetings with Emcali and EPSA, the two duty free zones of Palmira, the head of the Cali Digital Education Programs, Universidad del Valle, and other local companies.

Furukawa is betting on the social development of Valle del Cauca and the country. According to company directors, the estimated investment will be five million dollars within the period from 2013 to 2016. 25 high quality direct jobs will be initially created per production shift and another 200 indirect jobs resulting from the entire supply chain (civil works construction, logistics, transport, meals, supplies, etc.) Nonetheless there will be top-level technical empowerment processes.