Cisco puts India plans on the backburner

Dubai: Cisco Systems, one of the largest suppliers of network equipment and network management for the internet, has decided to go slow on its $1.2 billion (Dh4.4 billion) investment plan for India due to recession, a top company official said.

Wim Elfrink, chief globalisation officer for Cisco, told Gulf News that the current economic situation is causing them to pause and rethink their strategy for investment.

"The current situation could affect our investment plans from a timing point of view.

"The first thing you do in a downturn is to slow down," Elfrink said. He said Cisco would invest in econ-omies that it thinks would bounce back first from the recession.

Criteria

"We've made choices and speculate that the United States will be one of the first to come back. It is resilient and has been through this a couple of times," said Elfrink.

The company will also keep its focus on emerging markets.

"We will be investing in selective emerging markets, which we are currently assessing with criteria of GDP growth, political stability and so on," he said.

Though the company has decided not to have any mass layoffs, they are more careful with hiring and expenditure.

As part of reprioritising, the company will analyse their headcount. "We are looking at rebalancing our count, perhaps stop in one place and accelerate in another, while trying to predict where the upturn will be and invest accordingly," he said.

On the slowdown, Elfrink said that they "believe this is something macroeconomic. In the long-term we are positioned for 12 to 17 per cent growth and the big question is when that will happen."

The company has invested about $150 million (Dh550 million) in the Indian IT market. A commitment of $50 million (Dh183 million) has gone towards building Cisco Globalisation Centre East campus, a potential second headquarters. Their current headcount in India is 5,000.