All of Kathmandu's taxis are compact, fuel-efficient Maruti cars imported from India. (Fuel shortage or no, Chaudhary prefers to be chauffeur-driven in a gas-guzzling Suzuki SUV to his seven-story group headquarters on the site of a former electronics factory).

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Then a couple of days later a flagship South Korean investment in an electronics factory in Scotland was put on hold: Hyundai's microchip building in Fife will be completed, but its opening will then be delayed for at least a year.

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Allowed to wander freely through the factory, Weir found that building electronics is hard work.

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Apple has received a lot of criticism for its partnership with Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, mostly due to complaints about factory conditions.

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Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, has recently broken ground to build the largest semiconductor factory in America.

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The steel factory tour generated no pictures, but his stops at a library and an electronics research facility in Jagang Province the day before did.

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