On the heels of decisions made separately by HP, Foxconn, Cisco, and Inventec to set up new plants in Chongqing, Taiwanese leading notebook PC maker Quanta on January 18 entered into a strategic agreement with the Chongqing municipal government, whereby Quanta agreed to set up its third production base in Chongqing, China, Taiwan's United Evening News reported on January 19. With an aim to enlarge its production capacity, the new plant will not only contract manufacture notebook PCs but also products in mobile communications, enterprise networking, multimedia home entertainment, and automotive segments, according to the same source. Further details regarding the new plant, however, were not yet known. Aside from its Chongqing base, Quanta has another two production bases located in Songjiang, Shanghai and Changshu, Jiangsu. The Chongqing municipal government plans to earmark 150 billion RMB (US$22.1 billion; US$1 = 6.8 RMB) for the notebook PC industry within the next three to four year.

 

Meanwhile, Quanta has set up a R&D team, comprised of 700 people, for the development of cloud computing technologies, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported on January 19, without citing sources. Currently, the cloud computing business makes up around 5% to 10% of its total revenue.