Bangkok Post : Business news -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 12/23/2006
Last Visited: 12/23/2006
"DuPont's policy has always been to be in the markets where the demand for the products is, and now is the time to look to invest in Asia further," said D.S. Kim, the president of DuPont Asia Pacific.
"Various countries in Asia are of interest to us; China and India are among the priorities."
DuPont, which was founded in the United States 1802 and has a presence in more than 70 countries including Thailand, plans over the next two years to invest billions of dollars in Asia.
"In China we are looking to double our investments in the next few years from the $600 million that we currently have invested.And in India too over the next, say, five to 10 years we would have invested about the same level of more than $1.2 billion," Mr Kim added.
DuPont, he said, was looking to set up research and development centres across the region, with the latest opening in Shanghai in a few months.This will be followed by another R&D centre in India, with more planned for the future.
With products in various categories, such as agriculture, food, electronics, plastics and chemicals, the company has seen its sales contribution from Asia rise to 17% in 2005 from 15% in 2001.DuPont recorded revenue of $28 billion in 2005 against $24.7 billion in 2001, with the US accounting for more than 40%.
The company prides itself on offering environmentally friendly products.It aims to double revenues to at least $8 billion by 2015 from non-depletable resources, and wants to introduce more than 1,000 products to make workplaces safer.
Mr Kim says DuPont also wants to reduce greenhouse effects by another 15%.