Acer founder promotes India, Taiwan cooperation

India and Taiwan should combine their respective expertise in computer software and hardware to encourage the development of local companies able to compete in the global information technology industry, the founder of Taiwanese computer maker Acer has said.

“Taiwan and India each have their own obstacles [in computing] to overcome, so I recently proposed a new ‘IT’ model: I is for India and T is for Taiwan. If the two are able to work together and tap into the strong foundation of skills on each respective side, they could create great opportunities,” said Stan Shih, in an article penned for the most recent issue of Taiwanese financial magazine Business Weekly.

It’s an idea pundits have put forward before: to combine Taiwan’s computer hardware expertise with India’s software prowess. But Shih’s article coincides with a new emphasis by the Taiwanese government on India as a place for Taiwanese companies to seek engineering talent.

In early March, Taipei hosted the first India-Taiwan Workshop on Nanoscience, to build scientific cooperation in nanotechnology. And earlier this month, the government set up an English-language Web site to help recruit tech workers to Taiwan, estimating it will spend NT$1 billion (US$31.9 million) annually on attracting and developing workers in coming years.

But the island faces challenges in its bid to promote India as a partner for local companies. Taiwanese firms prefer to do business in China, where language and cultural ties lubricate the wheels of commerce.

Even the three companies born out of the Acer Group’s last major reorganization favor establishing operations in China over India, despite India’s reputation as a software haven.

Representatives from Acer, BenQ, and Wistron said their software needs are met by engineers in Taiwan and China, not India. Nor do any of the three companies have plans to establish operations in India.

In fact, out of ten Taiwanese companies contacted for this article only one, MediaTek, is doing any software work within India. The world’s largest developer of chips for optical drives set up a development center in India a few years ago to focus on mobile phone software, including a user interface and games, to go along with new chips it is developing for mobile phones.

“We have about 50 to 60 people in India, mostly for software development. So far, it’s working out very well,” said Yu Mingto, finance director at MediaTek. The company “will definitely increase the number of people there” as its handset chip business grows, he added.

MediaTek’s work in India fits well the model Shih proposed in his article, but it’s a rarity in Taiwan.

Part of Taiwan’s new emphasis on India may be politically motivated. China recently passed a law authorizing the use of force to take over the island if it moves toward independence, spurring an angry response from Taipei. Taiwan and China separated in 1949 amid civil war.

Taipei has responded to the new law by slowing down the relaxation of investment bans in China’s high tech industry and increasing the penalties on Taiwanese companies that violate technology transfer laws.

But Shih’s proposal makes sense for India and Taiwan.

“Through partnerships and cooperation, [Taiwan and India] could create a new model for growth, and break through limits each side has now,” Shih wrote.