HP (HPQ) and Taiwan's Foxconn have celebrated the planned construction of a 32,000-square-meter manufacturing facility intended for the production of HP PCs in Russia in connection with a joint venture agreement to invest US$50 million in Russia.

HP intends to be a major PC customer for Foxconn at the new facility and expects to ship up to 40,000 consumer and commercial desktop PCs per month for the Russian market from the facility. Foxconn expects that in the future the new manufacturing facility will produce goods for HP as well as other companies.

"Russian demand for the latest PC technology is developing quickly, and HP sees increasing interest from consumer and commercial customers," said Eric Cador, senior vice president, Personal Systems Group – Europe, Middle East and Africa, HP, in a prepared statement. "This project will help us meet local customer demand by enabling HP to deliver products quickly and competitively in Russia."

The new PC operation is part of HP's strategy to respond to increasing customer demand in fast-growing regions of the world. The planned St. Petersburg facility will complement a new HP-owned operation in India, as well as Foxconn facilities serving HP in the Czech Republic and Brazil.

Foxconn RUS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company. Hon Hai was established in 1974 in Taipei and has over 600,000 employees in all its locations.