Taipei Times (TT): What is it about India that attracts Taiwanese businesses?
Ong Wenchyi (翁文祺): First of all, the international business community has long kept its interest in the Indian market — one of the so-called BRIC countries [Brazil, Russia, India and China]. Plus, coverage of Indian affairs in Taiwanese media is on the rise. And gradually, Taiwanese businesses, especially those of small and medium-sized [enterprises] before big companies, have come to the realization themselves that the Indian market, albeit difficult to tap into, is an important market.
Most of the businesses [that have entered the Indian market] are mainly from the machinery industry, including shoe-making or textile related ones, the textile industry itself and some other industries ... such as the security or lock sectors.
They have discovered that the India market is a big market in two ways. One, it has very big domestic demand and secondly, its extended markets targeting overseas Indians in the Middle East, Iran and East Africa are also big.
TT: Do Taiwan-made products appeal to Indian consumers?
Ong: Taiwanese products lack publicity in India. That is not to say that Indians do not buy products made in Taiwan. Indian buyers usually have to go through [distributors in] Singapore or Hong Kong to place orders for Taiwan-made products since there aren’t a lot of direct sales points in India for them to place orders. That’s why the Taiwan External Trade Development Council [TAITRA, 外貿協會] has been organizing trade shows [TAITRONICS India, since 2007] to facilitate a platform for Indian buyers to have direct contact with Taiwanese manufacturers.
Taiwan-made products are highly competitive. Many [Indian] buyers and our own manufacturers told me that, in general, the quality of Taiwanese machinery products is 90 percent as good as those of their Japanese or German rivals, but with a price tag 30 percent to 50 percent lower. But the weakness of our businesses is that they don’t have much presence here, which has entitled Hong Kong or Singaporean distributors to a price markup on sales. Nor do Taiwan-made products have enough exposure [among Indian consumers]. So, to promote products made in Taiwan or made by Taiwan in China has become a priority of my trade office.
TT: India’s strength in the IT industry should attract many Taiwanese electronics makers. What has stopped them from entering the Indian market earlier?
Ong: If it weren’t for the recent financial crisis, some of these Taiwanese firms might not have come to India. We face market saturation in southeastern Asia. For example, in Vietnam, with so many Taiwanese businesses there already, there are problems of tight land supply and a shortage of labor. In China, regulatory changes and the new labor contract law, which took effect two years ago, pushed up labor costs and forced Taiwanese businesses to diversify away.
China was also encouraging businesses that tend to cause pollution yet generate less added value to leave. So it isn’t as easy and stable as it was for Taiwanese companies to do business in China, Vietnam or Thailand.
TT: Do you have any tips for Taiwanese companies eyeing India?
Ong: Not every business can succeed in India as there also present risks. But those that are persistent will find a way out. As more Taiwanese companies enter [the Indian market], there will be a cluster taking shape. Taiwanese products will be best-known to Indian consumers as “good products with reasonable prices.”
India, whose domestic market is still growing, also presents lots of opportunities as it remains one of the few economies little affected by the global economic slowdown.
We’ve seen annual 10 percent to 12 percent growth in trade between Taiwan and India in recent years and expect to see greater growth in coming years on closer trade ties. But I would recommend export-oriented businesses to stand down unless you are as big as [shoemaker] Pou Chen Group [寶成集團] or Foxconn International Holdings Ltd [富士康], with secured orders.
Focus on the domestic market, where demand will skyrocket in the next decade. And secondly, set up your own network of [Indian] distributors who understand the markets in its 28 states ... Also, localize your management team with a number-based goal to allow Indians to manage — as experience of successful Indian subsidiaries of Taiwanese companies such Acer Inc [宏碁] has shown.
Send Taiwanese executives who understand the products to service Indian distributors. Overall, electronic machinery, public infrastructure ... and agricultural reprocessing businesses stand a better chance of excelling.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort