Taiwan keen to boost investments in India

Taiwan is keen to pump investments into India, particularly in the information technology sector, and hopes the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) would be signed by the year-end to help in this regard.

The East Asian nation, over which China lays its claim, also wants to contribute its expertise in agriculture and food processing in India, besides encouraging Indian students to go for "efficient but cost-effective" higher education in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese representative (ambassador) in India, Wenchyi Ong, said trade between India and his country is too meagre because of absence of political and diplomatic relations for long, and emphasised the need to give a speedy push to this aspect.

"The economies of India and Taiwan are highly compatible. We have to try to push the economic ties in every way," he said.

"We were late because of the third party," he said referring to China which had been opposing to Taipei having any kind of independent relations with any country as it considers Taiwan as its part.

There was scant interaction between India and Taiwan from 1949 to 1995. The relations got some momentum from 1995 when representative offices of either country were set up in Delhi and Taipei.

Wenchyi noted that Indo-Taiwan trade is just USD5.3 billion, accounting for mere 1% of Taiwan's total foreign trade. "This is too little," he said.