Speech by Dr. Ferng-Chin Lin, Chairman, Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association

Additional Secretary General, FICCI Krishan Kalra, Chairman Vikram Kapur, Vice Minister Yen-Shiang Shih, Ambassador Kan-Tan Chien, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank all the business leaders from both countries attending the 9th India-Taiwan Joint Business Council Meeting. On behalf of the Taiwan delegation, I wish to extend our heart-felt appreciation to our Indian friends here, for the courtesy accorded to us since our arrival in your country. Furthermore, I am sure all the participants here would like to join me in conveying our thankfulness to Vice Minister Shih of MEA of Taiwan and Mr. Chien, the Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New Delhi, for honoring us with their gracious presence today.

I am pleased to note that this annual gathering between our two business communities has again attracted a large number of delegates from both sides. It clearly indicates that our two people have great interest in and attach great importance to the enhancement of trade relation and expansion of economic cooperation between Taiwan and India

I think the Indian business environment offers quite competetive advantages, such as: a huge domestic market, political stability, English proficiency, a vast pool of well-educated and skilled manpower and a very sophisticated legal system.

According to the official statistics of Taiwan Government, our bilateral trade volume reached 1.12 billion US$ and 1.19 billion US$ in year 2001 and year 2002 respectively. From January to July this year, our bilateral trade already totaled 777 million US$, representing an increase of 15% over the same period of last year. Our imports from India amounted to 372 million US$, a growth of 22.5%, and our exports to India amounted to 405 million US$, a growth of 10%.

Given the high complementary structure of our two economies, my firm belief is that there are still tremendous potential and tremendous rooms for us to further strengthen cooperation in the areas of trade, industry and investment.

An Indian friend of mine once told me that IT not only stands for Information Technology, it also stands for India Taiwan, that means we can put together India's expertise in software with Taiwan's manufacturing capability and marketing experience in computer hardware and translate the combination into very successful and mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

India is our major trading partner in this region. Both the Taiwan Government and business communities have strong desire and keen interest to expand economic cooperation and commercial relation with India. To keep the momentum of our bilateral business relations moving forward and to encourage Taiwanese businessmen to make more investment in your country, we still have a long way to go. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to request our Indian friends here to work with us more closely to bring about a more satisfactory result in the future.

Over the years, this annual joint meeting has become an important forum for our two business communities to facilitate mutual understanding, strengthen friendship and expand business collaboration. Once again I thank you all, for your participation and wish you a very successful and fruitful conference today!

I know that our Indian friends did not make the trip to Taiwan and hold our Joint Meeting in Taipei for the past two years, this is why we decided to visit you first this year. So I hope that next year, Mr. Kapur will definitely lead a big Indian delegation to Taipei, so that we can reciprocate your hospitality.