“I Bring Taiwan To India”

Taiwan is an island with 23 million citizens and its land mass is 1/90 of that of India. Yet, during the past 20 plus years, its GDP grew from 10,10,671 crore (US$184.8 billion; US$ 1 = Rs. 54.69. Same method is applied in all figures) in 1991 to 25,93,946 crore (US$474.3 billion) in 2012. The GDP per capita of Taiwan is even more impressive, increasing from 1,07,028 (US$1,957) to 11,31,207 (US$20,684) between 1979 and 2012. At present, Taiwan is famous for its ICT, electronics and machinery industries, while Taiwanese products are renowned for their world-class quality and relatively low prices.

According to a 2013 WTO press release, Taiwan ranked as 17th in exports and 18th in imports among WTO members in 2012. India, however, ranked as 19th in exports and 10th in imports among WTO members in the same year. The above rankings indicate that both sides are big players in trade. However, according to trade statistics released by India’s Ministry of Commerce for physical year in 2012, India’s export to Taiwan amounted to 16,470 crore (US$ 3 billion) while its imports from Taiwan amounted to 23,607 crore (US$ 4.3 billion). These figures contributed only 1 per cent and 0.89 per cent of India’s total exports and imports, respectively, suggesting that there is much room for both sides
to grow.

To help facilitate purchasing from Taiwan, instead of asking Indian businessmen travel to Taiwan, the concept “I Bring Taiwan to India” will be conveyed via the EMMA Expo India. This year, the 7th EMMA Expo will be held in Chennai Trade Centre Hall 3 during September 5-7. The main objective of this exhibition is to join hands with our Indian counterparts, to spur fruitful economic, trade and investment cooperation and to achieve unparalleled progress for both India and Taiwan.

Taiwan aims at not only assisting Taiwanese companies link with their Indian counterparts, but also enableing Indian entrepreneurs to view a host of Taiwan’s top products in electronics, machineries & molds, auto & motorcycle related parts, & accessories under one roof. The 2012 Expo attracted a record 6,215 visitors. Industrial giants from abroad and locally including TATA, Ford, Bosch, HP India, SIEMENS etc. all valued the Expo for offering innovative products with great market potential, which generated more than 95.7 crore (US$ 17.5 million) of business on the site.

Taiwan ranks No.1 in terms of market share on many ICT products such as Cable CPE,Notebook,WLAN, Motherboard, Tablet Device and IC Foundry, while other products such as Digital Camera,Electronic Blood Measure,IC Design and Solar Cell ranks as No.2. In 2012, Taiwan’s ICT industry output accounted for over 7,10,970 crore (US$ 130 billion). As for machinery and auto parts sectors, Taiwan ranks No.13 on overall export but specifically ranks No.3 and 7 on machinery tools and machinery components, respectively. In 2012, the machinery industry generated an output of 1,66,804 crore (US$ 30.5 billion) while auto parts had an output of 41,017 crore (US$ 7.5 billion).

India, however, is famous for its software, technological power and enormous domestic market. Both India and Taiwan can cooperate in all the above industries to uplift the general public’s standard of living, diversify our trading partners and further build a long-term relationship between both sides.

Before flying to Taiwan for further business contacts, I already bring Taiwan businesses to your doorsteps, I encourage you to join this exhibition on 5th-7th September, 2013 and I believe that you will be satisfied with the variety and the quality of Taiwan products and subsequently build up business connections with Taiwan.

By Chung Kwang Tien 

(Amb. Chung Kwang Tien is Representative Taipei Economic & Cultural Center in India)