The Taipei Economic and Cultural Center (TECC) in Chennai has been functioning for the past 14 years promoting cultural relations, besides facilitating travel, business opportunities to students, industrialists and others.In an interview with The Hindu, Director-General of TECC Chennai Stephen S.C. Hsu explains how Taiwan and south India could strengthen collaborations under his idea of ‘Design from Taiwan, Make in Tamil Nadu’.India and Taiwan have steadily expanded their engagement in recent years. How do you assess the current state of bilateral ties, particularly between Taiwan and South India?
Taiwan and India enjoy a strong and steadily growing partnership built on shared democratic values, economic complementarity, and mutual trust. South India, particularly Tamil Nadu, has become one of the most dynamic regions for Taiwan’s engagement. According to the statistics of our Ministry of Economic Affairs, bilateral trade between Taiwan and India has reached a record high year by year.
In 2024, the bilateral trade volume between Taiwan and India exceeded 10 billion US dollars for the first time, reaching 10.6 billion US dollars, and in 2025, it reached a new record of 12.5 billion US dollars. It has reached 8.6 billion US dollars from January to June (2026), an 43% growth over the same period in 2025. There should be a chance to set a new record this year. However, Taiwan’s trade between India and Taiwan accounts for only 1% of Taiwan’s total annual import and export trade, and there is still a lot of room for growth. As of June 2026, nearly 325 Taiwanese businessmen have invested in India, creating about 2,14,400 jobs.
