India (Commonweath Union)_ Taiwan has redoubled its efforts to strengthen its business relations with India.
This occurs in the midst of escalating tensions with China and a US-led initiative to consider Beijing’s alternatives when building up manufacturing for goods like cellphones and airplanes. A group from Taiwan headed by Chern-Chyi Chen, the deputy minister for economic affairs, landed in Delhi on Wednesday and is “scheduled to go to significant cities, including Chennai,” according to a ministry official familiar with the delegation’s travel itinerary.
Chinese National Federation of Industries, Taiwan’s trade association, also has representatives in the delegation. Speaking to an industrialists’ gathering of Indian and Taiwanese in Delhi, Chen said Taiwan was aiming to collaborate with India with a renewed focus. “Our businesses are mostly small and medium-sized businesses. These small and medium-sized businesses contribute to 97% of our GDP. Second, our businesses often deal with OEM business models and are extremely rapid with technology.”
At a time when tensions between Taiwan and China are at an all-time high, Taiwan is concentrating on forging partnerships with India. After recent military exercises by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in response to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, visiting Taiwan, which China considers as a renegade province, tensions reached their climax.
Taiwan aggressively works to improve ties in a number of industries, including electronics. Taiwanese businesses have not put much effort into collaborating with India’s product development and R&D talent thus far. Ajai Chowdhry, a co-founder of HCL and a seasoned professional in the electronics manufacturing sector, told ET that he was certain they will soon take steps in that direction.
For numerous projects, including those involving electric cars, for which “Tamil Nadu has proved it is a leading state,” a senior government official told ET that Tamil Nadu and Foxconn were in negotiations.
