Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in Chennai in the celebration of 109th double tenth day of ROC (Taiwan) organised a reception at Leela Palace Hotel on 8th October 2020. The theme of the event is "Recover & Prosper Together: Taiwan can help". Its purpose is to promote New South Bound Policy, encourage more Taiwanese companies to invest in South India and build up Taiwanese cluster to restructure supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era.
As the global community continues to fight against COVID-19, a review of the past year shows Taiwan to have displayed resilience in containing the pandemic. Thanks to the concerted efforts of government and private sector, the Taiwan Model of employing a democratic approach to epidemic prevention has successfully contained the spread of COVID-19 with less than 550 confirmed cases and 7 deaths. Taiwan proactively assists to other countries, showing the world that Taiwan can help and Taiwan is helping.
By the end of August, Taiwan had donated 54.4 million medical masks and other critical supplies to over 8 countries, including India for 1 million high-quality masks. Recognising Taiwan effort, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly stated that Taiwan's "openness and generosity in the global battle against COVID-19 is a model for the world".
During the outbreak of COVID-19, Taiwan has planned ahead and would like to engage with like-minded partners to develop new supply chains based on shared values and also to ensure new supply chains are secure and free from political coercion, which will eventually reinforce Taiwan New Southbound Policy.
Taiwan ranks number 15 in the global ease of doing business and at the current stage. Taiwan has already deepened its roots of economic cooperation in South India. Especially in Tamil Nadu. Taiwan has more than 20 major companies' investments, like Foxconn, Delta Electronics, Feng Tay Group, Grobest Feeds Corporation India Limited, TSMT Technology India, Zhen Ding Tech and others. The investments were estimated more than 1.7 Billion USD, for the productions of smartphones, electronics components, industrial equipment, fishery, textile and footwear, which have hired more than one lakh human resources. Moreover, there is also news disclosing that Pegatron is ready to set up a manufacturing unit in South India.
Mr Ben Wang, the Director-General of Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in Chennai, says, “It makes sense to further develop and strengthen the mutually beneficial relationship between Taiwan and India in the post-pandemic era. That is the reason why the theme of our National Day celebration this year is RECOVER AND PROSPER TOGETHER.”
Taiwan and India are natural allies with shared values in many aspects, and both are complementary to each other for further collaborations. Under this background, it is expected that the success of New Southbound Policy and the Economic Cooperation between Taiwan and India are to be continued and flourished.
Taiwan, a towering beacon of democracy, in its 109th anniversary, will continue to shine the light of freedom and democracy across the globe. Taiwan will bolster cooperation with like-minded countries, like India, to jointly recover from COVID-19 pandemic as well as seek prosperity together.
