Taiwan trade promotion body to open office in Kolkata

In a bid to promote trade relation with West Bengal and eastern India, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Taitra) has decided to open its office in Kolkata by January next year, a senior Taiwanese official said.

The kolkata chapter of Taitra, a trade promotion body of the island country will be Taiwan’s fourth economic office in India, following the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center Economic Division in New Delhi and two Taitra offices in Mumbai and Chennai.

“Taitra has already appointed a director for the Calcutta office who will shortly finalise the location. Apart from its own set-up, the branch will have five to six small temporary offices that can be used by Taiwanese companies at their initial stages of operations,” David Hsu, economic counsellor and director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in New Delhi, said.

“About 90 per cent of Taiwanese investment in India in the last few years have gone to Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi because of the presence of Taitra. Taitra office will boost our trade with Bengal. Bengal government should also send its delegations to various shows in Taiwan to promote business,” Hsu noted. Taiwan has a total investment of $1.6 billion in India.

Meanwhile, Hsu also visited the upcoming airport city at Andal of Bengal Aerotropolis Project Ltd (BAPL).

“There is a scope for developing a cluster for light engineering and information technology hardware units. One of the Taiwanese companies have already shown intersest in the project,” he added.

“We are in touch with the Taiwan embassy for more than a year now. We are keen on their investment in the airport project which will have space for non-polluting industry,” Subrata Paul, managing director of BAPL, said.