Looking South Episode #4 – India

Eric Gau and ICRT continue our exploration of the Tsai administration’s New Southbound Policy this week with a look at what it will mean for ties with India.

Joining Eric on the air is Representative Tien Chung-kwang, the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, to talk about the potential impact on bilateral relations with New Delhi.

Transcript:

Eric Gau:  Good morning, everyone. I’m Eric Gau and welcome to another episode of Looking South here on ICRT. Today we’re taking a look at how the New Southbound Policy will affect one of the target nations India.

Joining me on the air today is Mr. Tien Chung‑kwang, Representative of the Tapei Economic and Cultural Center in India, speaking to us from New Delhi. Representative Tien, welcome to the show.

Tien Chung‑kwang:  Thank you very much, Eric.

Eric:  The Indian government actually has its own Act East Policy, which has already led to greater cooperation between India and Taiwan. Now that Taipei has launched its New Southbound Policy, how do you expect ties to grow further with support from both governments?

Tien:  The new government has been pursuing the New Southbound Policy and simultaneously, India has the Act East Policy. Personally, I had the honor to sign the Air Service Agreements, and the Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural cooperation between India and Taiwan.

Furthermore, we both signed the Letter of Intent for cooperation in the field of railway heritage. Signing three legal documents, I think is a symbol of win‑win cooperation between India and Taiwan. The government has also worked the road map of Taiwan‑Indian new relationship including midterm and long‑term action plan for enhancing relations with India.

These include organizing trade and investment delegations to visit India, a series of tourism exhibitions and educational exhibition in India, and to further promote Mandarin teaching and attract more Indian students to Taiwan. We are strengthening the bilateral economic and trade relations.

We will also diversify the cooperation to the fields including agriculture, science, technology, cultural, and education tourism, and people‑to‑people exchanges. I think it’s well‑begun is half‑done. We have started in a very, very positive and a very active beginning with our two governments.

Eric:  You already touched on this a little bit with the business connections, but obviously, both countries are strong in information technology and telecommunications. What can India learn from Taiwan’s expertise in this field and what can Taiwan take away from India’s experiences?

Tien:  Taiwan is renowned for its leading and outstanding ICT industry. Taiwan has positioned itself as a major engine for innovation in Asia Pacific region and beyond. Meanwhile, Taiwanese enterprises have played an instrumental role in creating resilient global ICT supply chain and the prosperous local industries clusters.

This has enabled various countries in the region, including India of course, to utilize their comparative advantages in productions and to further energize their economy. These supply chains have benefited many by helping increase the flow of trade and to provide advanced quality products at an affordable price to consumers around the region.

Equally important are the new skills such managerial, marketing, logistics expertise that Taiwanese enterprises have brought to and will continue to bring to India. These skills act as inputs in the production of goods and services and therefore, effectively benefit their overall economies.

From the Indian side, Taiwanese enterprise also tried very hard to tap into the extraordinary talent from India. In addition, the ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs also signed a cooperative MOU with the Telecom Sector Skill Council.

This MOU aims to promote more substantive talent exchanges, and will result in even greater employment opportunities in ICT sectors on both sides. I think both sides will use this as a very, very important vehicle to deepen the cooperation of our two countries.

Eric:  Turning away from the business aspect of bilateral ties, Taiwan recently included India in its Travel Authorization Certificate Program along with several other Southeast Asian countries.

Taiwan also, this year 2016, had several Bollywood stars come here to shot a program promoting Taiwan as a tourist destination. What else can be done to boost bilateral tourism and people‑to‑people exchanges between the two countries?

Tien:  [laughs] Yeah, that’s very interesting developments. Bollywood stars, of course, it’s very, very popular in India, and Taiwan is undoubtedly a beautiful destination for tourism. We are trying to build connections between societies, which can be turned to support stronger relations and can increase people‑to‑people exchange and tourism.

For example recently like me, I just mentioned earlier the Letter of Intent was signed by myself and the Indian Ambassador to Taiwan about the railway heritage. That will further engage in cooperation for protection, safeguarding, and the management of their mountain railway heritage. This will also strengthen connections between people of two countries.

In the year ahead, we will hold Taiwan Tourism Roadshow and they joined the Indian Outbound Travel Mart Program in some of the metropolitan cities or over India. I think by doing so, the awareness of Taiwan would be strengthened and be increased tremendously, and Taiwan’s definitely going to be a very popular destination for Indian tourists.

Eric:  Similarly, many Indian students study here in Taiwan and some government officials, they have suggested letting these students who work here for a few years to help ease the shortage of local talent we’re currently seeing. What does Taiwan offer for Indian students and how would you like to see educational ties expanded?

Tien:  That’s another very important aspect included in the New Southbound Policy. First thing, I think it is a capacity building, which is important. Make connections within the younger generations, and over the past decade of about 200 Indian students have availed themselves of scholarships offered by Taiwan government.

At present, they’re about 60,000 foreign students studying in Taiwan of whom 1,143 students hail from India. We encourage foreign students to study in Taiwan and India is, of course, one of the countries whose students we actively pursue. The scholarship program delivers a world‑class education to foreign including Indian students.

While also exposing them the richness of Chinese culture as it is flowering in Taiwan. The goal of the policy, of course, to create a platform of international cooperation, streamline the movement of workers between countries and improve educational facilities.

The Ministry of Education will allocate about 30 Taiwan scholarship in the 12 華語 enrichment scholarship opportunities for Indian students for the purpose of increasing interaction between international students who have graduated from the university so as to broaden international links and to cultivate the pool of international highly skilled human resources.

Our Ministry of Education promulgated the directions for internship of the graduating from university and the colleges in Taiwan. So now, international students can stay in Taiwan to do internship for no more than two years then they would be more familiar with Taiwan industry and their employments.

By doing so, they have a chance to get working permit from their employer. I think that is just purpose for attracting the young and talented students not only to study in Taiwan, to learn the Mandarin and to make friends, to know the culture and to make linkages.

I think that’s a wonderful program, so we are very, very optimistic and positive for both relations for the years to come between Taiwan and India.

Eric:  We’ve been speaking to Taiwan’s Representative to India, Mr. Tien Chung‑kwang. Representative Tien, thank you so much for joining us on the air today.

Tien:  Thank you, Eric.

Eric:  That wraps up today’s look at the New Southbound Policy and India. Thank you all for tuning in. I’m Eric Gau and we’ll see you next week right here on ICRT.

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