Indian delegation off to Taiwan to explore business opportunities

NEW DELHI: In the first high-level visit from India, a delegation led by a senior government official and including top executives from leading companies today embarked on a six-day tour of Taiwan to explore business opportunities.

Amid Taiwan's keen interest to step up investments in India, the delegation, led by Rakesh Singh, Additional Secretary in the Department of Information Technology of the Union Communications Ministry, will meet top officials and executives of Taiwanese companies.

The visit of the delegation is part of India's 'Look East Policy', Pradeep Kumar Rawat, Indian Representative in Taiwan, said in a statement.

India does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan as China considers it a part of it.

Taiwan is a world leader in manufacturing units and has helped brands like Nokia and Hewlett Packard to build 3G communication systems.

As part of its new policy of investing in developing and resurgent markets, Taiwan is interested in collaborating with Indian IT companies so that they can retrieve the domestic markets by building their own brands.

Besides Singh, the delegation includes Vijay Malhi of Moser Baer, Rajesh Raizada of HCL Infosystems, Anand Prasad Arkalgud of Infosys, Ajay Nijhawan of Reliance Haryana Special Economic Zone.

Senior officials of the Union ministries of Commerce and Communication and representatives of state governments are also part of the delegation.

A Taiwanese delegation of 12 heavy-weight industrialists had visited India for a week early this month.

David HSU, Director of Economic Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre here, said trade relations between India and Taiwan have been developing smoothly and steadily in the last years.

He noted that more than 40 trade delegations from Taiwan visited India every year during the last three years to explore trade and investment opportunities.

However, the visits by trade groups from India to Taiwan are comparatively less, and therefore more India trade delegations are welcome to Taiwan to further expand their business in Taiwan market, he said.