The potential opportunities in developing India-Taiwan relations are tremendous. Taiwan provides much that India needs: telecom technology, agricultural technologies, education and training centers, medical institutions, arms sales, and defense cooperation, space research and applications, industrial technologies. India is developing rapidly and has begun to look outward for partners in its development.
The India-Taiwan relations have improved since the 1990s. India and Taiwan have signed bilateral agreements in the field of agriculture, Custom Corporation, civil aviation, investments, double taxation avoidance agreement etc.
In 2018, India and Taiwan signed an updated bilateral investment agreement. But, there are no formal diplomatic relations between India and Taiwan. Due to the lack of political ties between India and Taiwan, areas of cooperation have been limited.
Healthcare: Taiwan has been serving as an important partner for India in science and technology, particularly in the field of healthcare. It was able to provide medical supplies to more than 80 countries, including India.
Environmental and Agriculture aspect: Taiwan has the technical qualification for conducting biomass power generation. India's field of stubble burning presents a great potential for biomass power generation, and is also a cooperation possibility between Taiwan and India.
Cultural aspect: Cultural cooperation is a major pillar of bilateral exchanges between India and Taiwan. To attract Taiwanese tourists, India should concentrate on developing Buddhist circuits.
Electronics: Taiwan has strong capabilities in the electronics field. India should therefore tap into these capabilities by working out industry-level agreements that involve joint ventures between Taiwanese firms and Indian electronics companies.
Information Technology: Taiwan and India's IT sector achievements have grown rapidly over the past few years. Both Taiwan and India are the world's largest exporters of IT products. Taiwan is especially the world's largest exporter of PC peripherals, communication devices, and notebook computers.
Investment: India is a consumer-based economy. Invest in India initiative of India can attract large Taiwanese investment.
The Indian government needs to work to improve its ease of doing business by reducing unnecessary regulatory and labour laws. This will give India the right competitive edge in attracting global companies with a home-grown workforce, and also increase domestic manufacturing and employment opportunities.
The focus of the tips to improve India-Taiwan relations is about developing tourist destinations and promoting them. For Buddhist pilgrimage tours in India, better connectivity and visibility are required. Develop tourist destinations and promote them.
India should deepen India-Taiwan relations for the benefit of both countries. Although there is a One China policy, Taiwan maintains independent, non-diplomatic, relations with other nations. India should take a similar approach to deepen friendly ties between these two important and emerging Asian nations.
