Taiwan aims to establish a Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in Mumbai by the end of the year to further deepen exchanges and cooperation with India, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
The establishment of the center is in progress and the location, representative and inauguration date of the center would be announced at a later date, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Deputy Director-General Chen Chun-chi (陳俊吉) told a regular news briefing yesterday.
The center would be the third Taiwanese office in India, following the opening of one in New Delhi in 1995 and one in Chennai in 2012, the ministry said in a news release.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The new center is to provide visa services, document authentication and emergency assistance to businesspeople, tourists and Taiwanese nationals in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, as well as the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, it said.
It would benefit the large group of Taiwanese businesspeople in Mumbai, which is part of the reason the financial center of India was chosen as the location, Chen said.
As India boasts an enormous market and considerable business opportunities, the center could help further expand trade and investment opportunities between Taiwan and India, the ministry said.
In accordance with Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy, the center could promote bilateral exchanges and cooperation in science and technology, education, culture and people-to-people ties, it added.
Nearly 60 percent of all Taiwanese businesses investing and opening factories in India have chosen southern India as their bases since the second center was launched in the southeastern Indian state, it said.
Chennai and its surrounding areas have benefited from the investments made by Taiwanese manufacturing firms, it said, adding that the establishment of the center in Mumbai, the most populous city in India, is expected to have a similar effect in the western part of the country.
Cooperation between Taiwan and India has witnessed significant progress in numerous areas in recent years, including economics and trade, science and technology, critical supply chains, culture, education and traditional medicine, the ministry said.
Separately, Taiwan is still negotiating with Fiji to restore the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, Chen said.
Fiji on March 24 issued a note verbal to the office about the name change, but last month reversed the decision due to pressure from China.
Taiwan hopes Fiji could honor its original note verbal to allow the name change, Chen said.
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