India and Taiwan agree to cooperate on tech-sharing, IT

India and Taiwan agreed yesterday to boost cooperation in the trade and information technology spheres as part of a focused agenda for greater development in the Asian region, an official said.

Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) told the ninth meeting of the India-Taiwan Business Cooperation Committee that the two governments had decided to support efforts for boosting technological cooperation.

"India and Taiwan have agreed to create a free and open trade and investment environment to maximise the fruits of our cooperation. That way, we can both be assured of bigger gains and heightened economic prosperity," Shih said.

He said that in keeping with the spirit of this "constructive cooperation" Taiwan, which only established a representative office in India in 1995, would now fast track visa applications from India.

Taiwanese firms have invested US$115 million in India after it launched sweeping free-market reforms in 1991.

Shih added Taiwan was among top three countries in the world in manufacturing 25 high-end products which included IT hardware and notebooks to liquid crystal display devices and it hoped to "pool ideas" with Indian software designers to maintain that technology edge.

"Taiwan has gradually transfo-rmed itself from a technology imitator to a technology innovator. India's growing software indus-try's real strengths in research and development have also earned it an excellent reputation in the global IT industry," Shih said.