India is unlikely to rival the Chinese mainland in terms of attractiveness for Taiwanese companies, said Wang Min, assistant researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, writing for the
World Affairs, a semimonthly magazine.
The pro-independence Tsai Ing-wen government of Taiwan has attempted to adopt a so-called New Southward Policy that encourages the island’s entrepreneurs to expand their investments to Southeast Asian nations to rely less on the Chinese mainland.
From an economic perspective, Wang said, Taiwan and India do appear to be complementary, as the former is strong in software services while the latter in IT manufacturing. But the Chinese mainland is still far better than India in terms of overall environment for investment, the scholar noted.
Although the mainland is losing its edge in labor and land costs, Wang said, its regional variation has allowed it to cater to a growing variety of investors. While the more developed east coast becomes increasingly attractive to finance and insurance investors, the scholar said, the country’s rising central and western provinces are still a hotbed for manufacturers.
Even the smaller Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam are supposed to be more attractive than India to Taiwan's investors, Wang said. India’s reported inactiveness in foreign trade and its complex investment environment are expected to dishearten potential investors, according to the scholar.
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