Taiwanese companies look to step up India play, eye smart cities, EV space

MUMBAI: Taiwan-based companies are keen to invest in India in electric vehicles, smart cities and technology space to tap the potential created by the government’s push towards these sectors.Given the ongoing trade war between the US and China, Taiwan aims to scale up its presence in the Indian market, and has identified some of the new initiatives of the Indian government as key growth areas. Taiwan-based companies have invested around $360 million in India last year, 12 times their investment in 2016, and are likely to invest more going ahead, ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien said.“A lot of Taiwanese investment was earlier concentrated in the Asean countries, but India has emerged in the last decade as a regional power and a manufacturing hub and our companies have the right products and solutions for this market. The Indian government’s initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, smart city programme, coupled with their pro-business stance provide a good opportunity,” said Ambassador Tien, who is also a representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India.The trade volumes between the two countries have increased from less than $1 billion in 2000 to $7.5 billion in 2018.“Our trade volumes have increased, and so has the investment of our companies in India; a clear indication that we want to do more business here. We cannot compete with Japan and Korea since they came in much earlier, but we are catching up with big numbers,” Tien said.Last week, around 100 Taiwanese exhibitors participated in ‘Smart Asia 2019’ organised in the city by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to offer solutions to India after their experience in the home market where several municipalities are engaged in smart city initiatives. Many of these are in talks with Indian companies for tie-ups.Taiwan’s power and thermal solutions provider Delta, which is already active in India, is looking for a bigger presence.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/32BDcMd