'Taiwanese investment generated nearly 65,000 employment in India': Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu tells WION

After Taiwan's National Day trended on Indian Twitter a few days back,Joseph Wu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of China (Taiwan) spoke to WION about the growing friendship between the two countries.

Talking about the relationship he said the Taiwan government, since 2016,is looking forward to improving the friendship between the two countries— be it people-to-people relations or trade policies.

In the area of healthcare, agriculture, technical and education exchanges with each other, he has seen "tremendous progress".

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He also talked about the increasing Taiwanese investment in India since 2016. "In 2018, we sealed an agreement with India — a bilateral investment — and that is very important for the bilateral economic relations. And we have seen, Taiwan's investment in India has been increasing."

"The total amount of Taiwanese investment in India now stands around USD2.3 billion and our investment in India has employed roughly 65,000 Indian people; these are good quality jobs and we will continue to do that," he continued.

Talking about how can the relationship between the two countries be further improved, he said, "If the Indian government is interested in improving the economic and trade relations with Taiwan even further, an FTA or similar to FTA type of arrangement between Taiwan and India will certainly improve our economic relations", hinting towards the world's economic distancing from China.

He also added that many of the Taiwanese investors are now shifting from China to India.

Specifically talking about the increasing semi-conductors industry in Taiwan, he said India is one of the most preferred locations for Taiwan's manufacturers of semi-conductors, "I think there is a natural philosophy that they will go to the places which are the most friendly to them. So, for Taiwan's high-tech industries, to make an investment in the United States or South East Asia or in India as long as they feel that these (countries) are friends and that they can make their investment in a friendly environment, they will go to (those countries). ANd to me, India is a very friendly place where we have the same philosophy and we have the same values."

He also assured that the Taiwanese government will encourage and provide help to the local manufacturers who would want to invest in India. "The government will try to help them to make sure that they can make a profit in India, by speaking with the Indian government about the investment cases."