FIEO invites Korean firms to make more R&D investments in India

Of late 152 US-based companies have made R&D investments in India while only 14 US-based companies put their R&D investment in China in the same period.

Sanjeev K Ahuja On Jan 18, 2023

New Delhi. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has urged Korean companies to look at India for setting up their research & development (R&D) facilities here as India has the required technical and professional manpower. India is emerging as R&D capital of the world as 300 of Fortune 500 companies have set up their R&D basis in here. Of late, as many as 152 US-based companies have made R&D investments in India while only 14 US-based companies put their R&D investment in China in the same period. Korea is spending 4.4 percent of its GDP on R&D, while India still lingers under 1 percentage mark.

Dr. Ajay Sahai, Director General and CEO, FIEO said this recently while interacting with a delegation of Korean companies in New Delhi. Over a dozen Korean small-medium enterprises visited Delhi to explore possibilities of collaboration with Indian counterparts.

“Look to India for R&D also as India is fast emerging as R&D capital of the world. Over 300 of Fortune 500 companies have set up their R&D bases in India. As per a recent report as many as 14 US-based companies have R&D investment in China while 152 US-based companies did in India in the same period,” said Dr. Sahai during the 2023 TRADESHOW @ New Delhi. It was organized jointly by Wevio – Global Business Development Company, the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), and Indian Chamber of International Businesses (ICIB) at Niryat Bhavan in New Delhi.

He said that India had huge technical and professional manpower to back it (R&D projects), and those investing in R&D would reap these benefits.

Later while interacting with Asian Community News (ACN) Network, Dr. Sahai said, “Korea is spending 4.4 percent of its GDP on R&D realm, and India is not even 1 percent. We are a kind of complementary economy to each other. We are not competing. Korean is at the high end of technology, and we are is looking into the appropriate technology. This kind of partnership will work. The trend India is following even in the FTA, it is looking into complementary economies so that both sides gain from each other.”

“We can look into a lot of tie-ups as each side has something to offer to each other and that’s something we have to move forward to. We have Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) also but unfortunately, we have not been able to push our exports the way we wanted to go.”

While recounting India’s bilateral trade with ASEAN, Dr. Sahai said that India’s experience with ASEAN has not been good. “Because we thought we would gain a major share from that but they are very strong in manufacturing and we lost in the process.”

On the issue of the countries like Korean and Japan have just 20 percent of their SMEs setting up their facilities while rest 80 percent being medium or large scale, the FIEO chief said that the beginning had been made, FIEO was organinsing 2023 TRADESHOW @ New Delhi kind of event after very long time with Korea. “We expect to have more SMEs coming form Korea to India in the coming years,” he added.

On the issue of Korea’s demand to expand the scope of CEPA, Dr. Sahai said that every agreement is give and take. “When one side expects something, it should be willing to offer top the other side as well.”

A partner of the Government of India in promoting India’s exports, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations represents Indian entrepreneurs in the global market. It’s an apex body of Indian export promotion organisations constituted jointly by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India and private trade and industry in the year 1965.

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