Taiwan, which has invested around $ 1billion (Rs 4500 crore) in five states in India in the past seven years, has identified food processing, electronics, textiles, agri-business and IT hardware as the potential areas of investment in Orissa.
The country is known for its inherent strengths in electronics and food processing and is keen on studying the investment potential of Orissa, which is still a virgin state for the Taiwanese investors, said Wenchyi Ong, representative, Taiwan Economic and Cultural Centre (New Delhi).
Besides, the nation also intends to build educational tie-ups with KIIT and other premier universities of the state, he added.
"Our objective is to examine the investment potential of Orissa which has been quite successful in attracting investments. We believe that the areas of investment for the Taiwanese companies in the state are food processing, electronics, IT hardware, agri-business and textiles. The companies from Taiwan can explore possibilities of setting up manufacturing facilities for cell phones, refrigerators and computers in the state. Our investments would be relatively smaller compared to the likes of Posco and IBM nonetheless important because of the focus on job creation”, said Ong.
"We are keen on having tie-ups with the universities of Orissa. There is a good potential for collaboration between the universities of Orissa and Taiwan. We are also looking at the possibility of sea food imports from Orissa. Last year, Taiwan had imported $400-500 million of sea food from US, Canada and Australia”, he added.
Ong is scheduled to call on the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday and hold discussions on opportunities for the Taiwanese investors in the state.
"We are looking at job generation capacity and the we'll see how many jobs can be created by the Taiwanese companies in Orissa. However, we are not interested in investing in steel and aluminium sectors”, he stated.
Asked on the visit of the Taiwanese business delegation to Orissa, Ong said, “I'll go to Taiwan and persuade some Taiwanese companies to visit Orissa. However, the timing of the visit of the delegation from Taiwan would depend on the conducive atmosphere created by the state. Its going to be competition for Orissa with other states where we have already invested”.
The companies from Taiwan have invested $1 billion in five states- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has the maximum share of Taiwan's investment. Top Taiwanese firms including electronics maker Foxcom and Apache, an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for Adidas shoes have invested $387 million in Tamil Nadu.
The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan stood at $6.4 billion in 2010, a 40 per cent growth over 2009.
