December 18, 2017
No.240
Representative Tien Chung-kwang and Director General Sridharan Madhusudhanan signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India and the India Taipei Association in Taipei on the Promotion of Industry Collaboration on behalf of their respective countries on December 14 in New Delhi, India. The MOU aims to promote industrial technical cooperation and business matchmaking between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Republic of India, and will effectively boost bilateral economic, trade, and investment ties.
Relations between India and Taiwan are close and cordial, especially as President Tsai Ing-wen initiated the New Southbound Policy to strengthen Taiwan’s exchanges with India, as well as ASEAN member countries, in May 2016. Since then, the two countries have signed five bilateral cooperation agreements, including the Air Services Agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding on Agriculture Cooperation, the Letter of Intent on Mountain Railway Heritage Cooperation, the Authorized Economic Operators Recognition Action Plan, and this latest MOU. India and Taiwan will continue to deepen cooperation in a variety of fields in the future.
To date, more than 100 Taiwanese companies have invested around US$1.5 billion in India, mostly in the IT, engineering, shipping, shoe manufacturing, finance, chemical, and service industries. Bilateral trade reached US$4.7 billion from January to September this year, an increase of over 40 percent compared to the same period last year. India is now Taiwan’s 18th-largest trade partner. (E)