In this week’s installment of Looking South, Eric Gau chats with Director-general Sridharan Madhusudharan of the India-Taipei Association about bilateral ties with India one year after the introduction of the New Southbound Policy.
Transcription:
Eric Gau: Good morning, everyone. I’m Eric Gau, and you are listening to Looking South, here on ICRT. Today, we are joined by Mr. Sridharan Madhusudharan, Director-General of the India-Taipei Association, to tell us about bilateral ties under the New Southbound Policy. Mr. Sridharan, welcome to the show.
Sridharan Madhusudharan: Thank you, Eric. I’m glad to meet your audience through this program, and my good morning to all of you.
Eric: I understand you’ve been in Taiwan for over a year at this point. What has your experience been like, living here?
Sridharan: It’s been wonderful. Let me say that the first word that comes to my mind is ‘friendship’. I find that the Taiwan people are very friendly, hardworking, and very professional in their delivery of things. I also like the family values. Why I say this is that, in one year I’ve actually traveled to almost all the towns and cities in Taiwan. And also, I participated in the大甲媽祖遶境, I walked from Taichung to Chiayi and from Chiayi to Taichung for nine days. So I interacted with the common people, I interacted with the business people, so I found that this is the first impression that comes to my mind is that Taiwan is a very friendly place, and at the same time very professional.
Eric: In your view, what are some of the opportunities for Taiwan in India under the New Southbound Policy?
Sridharan: I find that there is a commonality in terms of the policy positions. Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy you all know. In India, we have something called the ‘Act East Policy’, where we want to focus more on the eastern countries and the eastern region. So in that way, there is a policy complimentality that we have. At the same time, India as you know is one of the largest economies of the world, and is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. And we have 1.3 billion people. So what you’re talking about is a country with a lot of people and a lot of economic growth, so that obviously is a huge opportunity for Taiwan. At the same time, if you see your New Southbound Policy, there are three elements that are very critical. One is economic diversification, second is economic transformation, third is innovation. In diversification, of course because we are a large economy, a fast-growing economy, economic diversification should take India into consideration, there is a lot of potential there. Secondly, economic transformation for Taiwan, where you want to go from OEM, original equipment manufacturer, or ODM, original design manufacturer, to OBM, where you want to do original brand manufacturing. India is good for this for two reasons. One is that the Indian population is not very highly brand-conscious. So, if there is a new brand that is very cost competitive, we are going to go for it. Secondly, because of the huge population and diverse field that we have, the brand manufacturers of Taiwan can test their products in a smaller area, in one city, where you have huge population. Some of the cities in India have 20 million people, 15 million people. So, on this economic transformation, I see India as a very good partner that Taiwan can have. Finally, innovation. We are one of the young countries in the world, and we have a lot of R&D. India is slowly becoming the R&D capital of the world. At the same time, there is a very unique nature to it. For example, you know we are the 4th country in the world to have successfully sent a rocket to Mars, and we are the only country in the world to have succeeded in the first attempt. At the same time, our cost is ¾ of one Hollywood movie budget to actually send a rocket to Mars. So we innovate, we innovate successfully, we innovate cost-effectively. And also, Taiwan innovation is mainly in the product area, while India innovation is mostly in the service area. So there is complimentality. So in all these three aspects of the New Southbound Policy, I see India as a good partner, and I welcome Taiwan participation.
Eric: Can you give us some examples of recent bilateral exchanges and cooperation between the two sides?
Sridharan: Actually, trade is growing. If you see the January to August figures of last year compared to this year, there’s a huge increase. We’re almost touching 40% growth in bilateral trade, we’re at 39% actually. And investment in India is also growing. I normally say that the India investment scenario is like a party that is already on, Taiwan has to go and join. If you see your companies, like Delta, MediaTek, Foxconn, Hon-hai, who have gone to India to invest. But we have just started scratching the service. So we are now doing…last week actually we did a huge industrial summit, more than 20 MOUs were signed between both parties. And also in other areas, last week India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, we signed an MOU with ITRI of Taiwan, in terms of R&D and industrial collaboration. Last but not least is cultural cooperation. This month, 故宮 is running India Month. If you are wearing an India costume, you need not buy a ticket on particular dates. So there is a lot of things happening between both sides, but when compared to the potential, we have just started.
Eric: So there’s already a lot going on. What do you think the next steps should be for further strengthening bilateral ties?
Sridharan: I think there’s a scope for almost all areas. But if I’m asked for a wish-list, I would say that we should focus on electronics, food processing, textiles, automobile parts…you are a huge leader, and we are one of the largest leaders of automobiles. In education area, of course we have to interact more. And tourism is a huge area. Cultural cooperation, and also Bollywood…I am just thinking that there are so many countries in which Bollywood movies have been made, Singapore, there is a lot of regions where Indian movies have been made, but not even one movie has been made in Taiwan so far, so I’m hoping these areas will come. Secondly, I am thinking that we need to create a ecology of Taiwan and India. There should be a group of companies from Taiwan in the food-processing sector, a group of companies in electronics, a group of companies in textiles. This will give a sort of comfort for new companies to get into, and at the same time it will create a very organic supply chain, so I hope that this happens soon.
Eric: And finally, you touched on this a bit earlier when speaking about your time here in Taiwan, what are some of the commonalities that Taiwan and India share, which can serve as the basis for further boosting of relations between the two countries?
Sridharan: I for one find a lot of commonalities. Straight away, let me put it out: Buddhism. That is something that is very common, I see how many people are practicing here. At the same time, I frequently visit Longshan temple or Shan-xie temple just to get a feel of things. And I find a lot of these practices that we have are very similar. This is one angle. A second is yoga. Many people are practicing yoga, and we have that commonality. Meditation. Family values, I find it very incredibly similar to Indian family values. I also feel that there are commonalities like focus on hard work, trusting in brain power, and innovation; we are not satisfied with what we have, we keep innovating. And finally, one example is about the Dangal movie, I’m going to end with this. The Dangal movie, in Chinese, in Taiwan it is called我和我的冠軍女兒, it was running on 68 screens in Taiwan at the time. It was actually a better box-office hit than even 三個傻瓜, the Three Idiots. I met the company that brought it, and they had a nice story to tell. Initially, when they previewed the movie, they had their doubts. Because one, in this, Aamir Khan, the hero, is an old father. Secondly, the wrestling on which the whole movie is built up on is not a very common, popular sport in Taiwan. Thirdly, the movie has an India rural setup, not a Indian city setup, so they were very skeptical. And when coming back, they all shared that they probably would have some problems. But one person said, ‘When all’s said and done, I cried.” Then the other person says “You know, I also cried.” Then everyone admits that “I also cried, the movie just moved me.” Then they decided to bring it here, then it became a huge hit. Actually, Aamir Khan gave a special video message thanking the people of Taiwan for the support for the movie, this has never happened before. What I’m saying is, we may have perceived differences, but we have much much deeper connections, we have commonality. In that way I feel that Taiwan has a huge future for India-Taiwan cooperation.
Eric: We’ve been chatting with Director-General Sridharan from the India-Taipei association about ties between Taiwan and India. Mr. Sridharan, thank you for joining us today.
Sridharan: Thank you for the opportunity.
Eric: And that’s it for today’s installment of Looking South. I’m Eric Gau, and you’ve been listening to ICRT.