Taiwan electronic manufacturing cluster at Bengaluru

City expects Rs 3,200 cr investment

The government of Karnataka is creating a Taiwanese electronic manufacturing cluster near the airport here, with an investment expectation of $500 million (Rs 3,200 crore).

It has signed an agreement with the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association, a grouping that represents a little over 3,000 companies. Among these are Getac Technology Corp, maker of  handheld devices and laptops for industrial and military use, MobileTron that makes automotive electronics and Waffer Technology, a maker of components and systems for laptops and smartphones. “Hundred acres is a conservative estimate; they want to expand to 1,000 acres,” said K Ratnaprabha, additional chief secretary.

“The investments will begin in the next six to nine months.”

India has been wooing Taiwanese investments, with top bureaucrats leading delegations over the past year. While Karnataka has lost to Andhra and Maharashtra on investments from Foxconn, the world’s largest electronic manufacturing service provider, both Karnataka and Taiwanese officials say the investment opportunity from other firms are huge.

“Every state said, please take the land. It was difficult. In Karnataka, they have land that is developed and we can start a factory tomorrow,” said Francis Tsai, chairman of Teema.

Taiwanese firms Mediatek, the world’s second largest fabless chip company (this is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or 'fab' of the devices to a specialised manufacturer), Vistron, D-link and Delta Electronics have research and software development facilities in India, mainly in this city.

“Nearly 98 per cent of Taiwanese companies are small and medium industries.  India needs a lot of these industries, who in their specialisation are world leaders. These companies supply components to big companies,” said Kim Y C Tsai, chairman of Mobiletron Electronics, an automotive electronics firm.

Kaushik Mukherjee, the state government's chief secretary, said Karnataka had emerged as a preferred investment destination for information technology firms.

“I  have absolutely no issues with other states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra or Odisha taking investments. They need to come here and manufacture, grow and thrive here,” he said.