In the last few years, several Taiwanese companies have set up shop in India and many more are interested in investing in the country, Estela Chen, director at Bureau of Foreign Trade, Taiwan, said on Wednesday.
"There are almost 250 Taiwanese companies here in India with an accumulated investment of around USD 4 billion," she said.
Among the most notable Taiwanese companies, Foxconn assembles Apple Iphones at a factory in Tamil Nadu and earlier this month announced plans to invest $600 million in two projects in Karnataka.
The company is also looking to set up semiconductor manufacturing unit in India, it was reported earlier, after it had exited from the semi conductor joint venture with Vedanta.
There are other Taiwanese companies expanding into India, too. For instance, in April 2023, a subsidiary of Taiwanese footwear maker Pou Chen signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a non-leather footwear manufacturing plant in the state.
Such deals will lead to other suppliers coming here, too.
“Once you make the footwear, you need a lot of components to come with you. That means, the supply chain, upstream, downstream, middle-stream, they will come here together as a group,” said Chen.
Battery swapping firm Gogoro recently signed an agreement with Maharashtra for smart battery packs and battery swap stations. The proposed ultra mega project deal would exceed USD 1.5 billion, the company had said.
India is expected to be among the fastest growing major economies this year, at a time developed countries like the US are staring at a possible recession.
"More and more Taiwanese companies, even delegations and associations are paying attention to India," said Chen.
She noted that Taiwanese companies are strong in areas like ICT (Information and Communications Technology), machinery and automation solutions and are areas of interest.
Bilateral trade between India and Taiwan has grown nearly six-fold from USD 1.19 billion in 2001 to almost USD 7.7 billion in 2021, according to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India.
