‘Right Moment For Taiwan To Engage With India’
After Japan, Korea and China, Taiwan is increasingly looking at India as an important trade partner. A slew of corporates headquartered in the East Asian country are looking to set shop in India in a bid to expand their operations outside their home country. “We have not paid too much of attention to India so far but going forward, we want to establish our presence there,” said James Huang, Chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Taitra), addressing the Indian media at the India Centre in Taipei. “Taiwan’s focus on India has grown over the past few years with the creation of a new southbound policy in 2016 that was aimed to strengthen trade with countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia and New Zealand. “The previous southbound policy focused only on Southeast Asian countries,” said Huang. In 2016, bilateral trade between India and Taiwan stood at $5 billion, while in 2017 it touched $6.3 billion. This year, it is expected to go up by another 10-15 per cent.
Huang, among other members of Taitra (the official body of the Taiwan government for trade promotion), is gearing up to visit India in May for the much touted ‘Taiwan Expo’ that is slated to take place in New Delhi for the first time. The event will see participation from scores of business houses across diverse sectors looking to invest in India. “It is never too late to do something (trade) with India... So far, most companies in Taiwan concentrated on China and other South East Asian countries,” said Huang to Paramita Chatterjee in an interview.
Edited excerpts:
At a time when other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and China are well entrenched in India, do you think Taiwan is late in entering India?
Well, the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
When we say ‘yes’, it is because we may be a bit late in entering India when compared to Korea, Japan and even China. But the answer is also ‘no’ since we believe it is never too late to do something (trade) with India.
Going forward, we want to speed up our investments in India. As I said, in past three decades, our business communities have primarily focused on China and South East Asian countries. They may have neglected India but the situation is very different now.
I understand that many Korean and Japanese companies are doing quite well in India. But, we also have very important companies that have set up shop in India and are looking at major expansion plans. These include names such as Foxconn and MediaTek. There are others as well.
It is time for more and more companies from Taiwan to understand the importance of India. And, considering that, it’s never too late.
Could you throw some light on overall trade in terms of export and import. What is China’s share and where does India stand?
Trade relations between Taiwan and China are extremely important. As much as 39 per cent of our export goes to China. Having said that, every trade partner is important to us. Going forward, we definitely want to focus more on India in terms of trade, investment and cultural exchanges. India is a growing economy, it is a country that has huge potential. We see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India and Skill India in which Taiwan can participate and become a good partner.
While our investments in China and Southeast Asia in the past three decades have helped us tremendously, I believe this is the right moment for Taiwan to engage with India for the next 20-30 years. Last year, we launched the India Centre in Taipei to create more awareness about India’s business environment in Taiwan. And since then, we have been educating entrepreneurs about the importance of India. In fact, many of them are now looking to invest in India.
Which are the key sectors that you are looking to invest in?
There are several sectors that we are looking at. We are considering developing industrial parks in India as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. We are also ready to start a petrochemical park in India. The Modi government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative is also a huge opportunity for Taiwanese companies. That aside, Taiwan is also ready to collaborate with India in enhancing electronic manufacturing capability.
Among other sectors, food processing, healthcare and electrical vehicles are alo our key areas of focus. In fact, electrical vehicles (EV) is one area where we have invited partners from India to come over to Taiwan for seminars and explore opportunities to work with our EV industry because as per the Indian government’s plans, the country will stop using diesel and petrol vehicles by 2030. Going by that, EV naturally will be a very important industry in India in the future.
While ‘Make In India’ is important, foreign companies in India are also looking to ‘Make for India’ to connect with the consumers better. What are your views on that? Are companies from Taiwan ready to make localised products?
Well, this is something that we are definitely trying to communicate to companies in Taiwan. Yes, while ‘Make in India’ is important, it’s not the only thing. ‘Make for India’ and from India is also equally important. Companies will be truly successful once they make India the centre for R&D and manufacturing and export to the global world. We are thinking on those lines.
(The writer was invited by Taiwan External Trade Development Council to visit Taiwan)
