TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As India and Taiwan seek closer economic ties to counter China, over 200 Taiwanese companies have begun investing billions of dollars in India.
On Friday (Aug. 25), Estela Chen, director of Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade, was cited by the Trade Promotion Council of India as saying, "There are more than 250 Taiwanese companies already in India, who have made a combined investment of around US$4 billion (NT$127.4 billion) in the country." Chen said that due to India's rapid economic growth, many more Taiwanese firms are focusing on the Indian market.
From 2001 to 2021, bilateral trade between the two countries increased nearly six-fold from US$1.19 billion to US$7.7 billion, per the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India. Based on official Taiwan foreign ministry data, India is Taiwan's 17th-largest trading partner and 14th-largest export market, per RTI.
In 2022 alone, trade between India and Taiwan was valued at US$8.45 billion, an increase of 9.8% from 2021, according to the Bureau of Foreign Trade. India in 2022 exported US$3.14 billion in goods to Taiwan, while Taiwan exports to India reached US$5.31 billion, according to the bureau.
Taiwanese firms that have recently inked deals in India include Foxconn, which in August announced plans to invest US$500 million in two components factories in the Indian state of Karnataka. In April, Taiwanese shoemaker Pou Chen said it would set up a non-leather footwear manufacturing plant in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu after pledging to invest NT$8.42 billion in the state.
In June, Taiwanese electric scooter maker and battery solutions provider Gogoro announced that it signed an agreement with the Indian state of Maharashtra for smart battery packs and battery swap stations worth US$1.5 billion. On Aug. 17, Gogoro said it had entered a partnership with India’s on-demand convenience delivery platform Swiggy.
Chen suggested that such deals will also result in other Taiwanese suppliers going to India, per The Week. “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," she said.
She added, "More and more Taiwanese companies, even delegations and associations, are paying attention to India." She observed that Taiwanese firms are strong in areas that India seeks to develop, such as ICT, machinery, and automation solutions.
