More Taiwanese companies plan to invest in India

The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan has grown to $6 billion in 2014 and over 70 Taiwanese companies have invested in India since 2013.

Anticipating a quantum jump in India’s manufacturing output, Taiwanese companies especially those from the machine tool industry have shown keen interest to participate in the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and invest in India.

Recently, Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, had committed to invest $5 billion in Maharashtra and additional funds in other States. More Taiwanese companies are expected to join soon.

“We are extremely keen on supporting the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ programme, which can be transformative in nature as far as manufacturing is concerned. As the backbone of manufacturing, the machine tools industry has the potential to play a catalysing role in Indian manufacturing,” said Guann-Jyh Lee, Executive Director of Economic Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India.

“Taiwanese companies can offer their machine tools in a broad spectrum of industries and help fuel India’s growth. Many of the sectors, in which we have expertise, are those that have been identified as priorities under the ‘Make in India’ programme”, he said.

According to latest data, the bilateral trade between India and Taiwan has grown to $6 billion in 2014 and over 70 Taiwanese companies have invested in India since 2013.

Now this number is set to grow sharply, as Taiwanese companies are exploring possibility to set up base here to leverage on the manufacturing drive.

The Indian government has identified 25 sectors, where it can become world leader under the ‘Make in India’ programme. These include automobiles, chemicals, IT, pharma, textiles, ports, aviation, leather, tourism and hospitality, wellness and railways.

Taiwan was among India’s top five machine tool suppliers in 2014. Machining centres, drilling, boring, milling machines, parts and components for metal cutting machine tools are the main items imported by India.

The unique feature of the Taiwanese machine tools industry is that it has become globally competitive without enjoying the advantages of a large domestic market or the strong support of a local car industry. The secret to success is that this industry is concentrated in clusters and delivers the highest output value per unit.

This may be replicated in India as well.