Taiwan keen to invest in auto, IT sector in Orissa

Taiwan, which has invested around $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) in India in the past ten years, has identified aluminum downstream, electronics, tourism sector, automobile components and IT hardware as the potential areas of investment in Orissa.

“A four member official delegation of the state visited Taiwan in February and held talks with the government officials, trade associations and various industry bodies there. Aluminum and steel downstream producers are keen to invest in the state,” said an official source familiar with the development.

Moreover, the Taiwanese are also enthusiastic to invest in the automobile component manufacturing, electronics and IT hardware units as setting up of these units don’t require large investments like the case in steel and power generation, added the sources.

The four-member state delegation to Taiwan was led by Chief Secretary BK Pattnaik. The other members of the team were C J Venugopal, chairman and managing director (CMD), Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Ltd (Ipicol), P K Jena, secretary (IT) and B N Palai, general manager of Ipicol.

CMD, Ipicol will make a presentation to the secretaries of the state departments on March 17 about the Taiwanese intentions of investing in the state in presence of the Chief Secretary, sources said.

Orissa has attracted investments worth Rs 12.08 lakh crore across sectors till the end of 2011, grabbing 10.04 per cent share of the overall investment in the country standing at Rs 120.34 lakh crore.

With Orissa bagging top slots in manufacturing and mining sectors with a share of 17.5 per cent and 31.2 per cent respectively of the total investments, the state is looking to diversify its basket by roping in investors from sectors like automobile and IT hardware. To give a boost to automobile manufacturing in the state, a dedicated policy for the auto component manufacturing sector is on the anvil. The bilateral trade between India and Taiwan stood at $6.4 billion in 2010-11, a 25.4 per cent Compound annual growth rate of 2009-10.