Taiwan seeking to boost business ties with India: report

Taiwan to boost cooperation with India in the construction, finance and air transportation sectors, in the hope that it will become one of country's top 10 trade partners by 2015, a government report released yesterday said.

A series of seminars on the Indian investment climate have been held over the past few weeks with the aim of expanding bilateral economic and trade relations, the report by the Council for Economic Planning and Development said.

Statistics that two-way trade between the two countries has continued to grow over the past six years, with exports to India for the first seven months of this year amounting to US$1.27 billion, and imports from India totaling US$1.10 billion. However, this accounts for less than 1 percent of Taiwan's total foreign trade volume.

As of July, Taiwanese manufacturers had invested US$400 million in 69 investment projects in India, which a council official said demonstrates that there is still ample room to enhance bilateral trade and investment cooperation.

The official said India's advantages include more than 300 million middle-class consumers and the impressive development of its software industry, while the lack of modern infrastructure, low levels of government efficiency and high production costs are disadvantages.

The government will help Taiwanese entrepreneurs gain a better understanding of Indian laws and regulations governing foreign investment so that they can make inroads into that market, the official said.

The official said it was hoped that Taiwan's annual exports to India would increase 15 percent over the next three years. Presently, India is Taiwan's 25th-largest trading partner.