India, Taiwan to promote software cooperation

By agencies   |   Thursday, 11 August 2005, 19:30 IST
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TAIPEI: Officials and business leaders from India and Taiwan gathered in Taipei Wednesday for the 2005 Taiwan-India Business Cooperation Forum to discuss how their software and information technology industries can work together. Huang Kuo-chun, deputy chief executive officer of Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry (III), said India has strong software development capabilities, a large talent pool, low production costs and a vast market. The strengths of Taiwan's IT industry lie in its ability to integrate and a well-developed R&D and supply chain that is backed up by strong production capabilities, plus Taiwan's advantage in Chinese language and culture, Huang said. He said if the industries in the two countries can jointly develop new products, which he believes they can do efficiently, they would create a high value-added production system through a division of labor. Kiran Karnik, President, India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)pointed out that Indian companies are interested in cooperating with their Taiwanese counterparts, particularly in operating R&D platforms. III and NASSCOM signed a memorandum of understanding of cooperation in New Delhi in February last year, paving the way for future efforts for both sides. In March this year, a Taiwan delegation visited India. The forum is part of the programs both sides have agreed to pursue.