A delegation of Micro & Small Industry, led by Mr. B.S. Srinivasan, Secretary, Laghu Udyog BharatiKarnataka visited Taiwan from June 18-20, 2013. The delegation included Mr. Yajnanarayana Kammaje, Managing Director of Sona Group of companies, Mr. R. K. Ramakrishnaiah, Managing Director of Nandi Powertronics, Mr. Subramanya, Managing Partner of Seashell Plastics, Mrs. Prabhavathi Srinivasan of Pentagram Interiors and Mr. Srinivas Sekar, CEO of Ecoserve Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

The delegation visited Photonics festival in Taiwan (PFT), which combines OPTO Taiwan, LED Lighting Taiwan, Solar Taiwan, and OPTICS Taiwan held at Taipei World Trade Center and at Nan gang exhibition hall. Photonics Festival in Taiwan is built around “Energy saving”, “Clean Energy” and “Living Green” concepts. In addition to LED & Solar, PFT featured “Plant Factory Taiwan” and “Bio-photonics & Telemedicine Taiwan” this year. In view of the recent trends in the development of precise manufacturing the “3D Printing Pavilion” was worth visiting.

Dr. Peter T. C., Chairman of Organizing Committee gave away the 16th Outstanding Photonics Products Awards to 11 winning products, all of them “Made in Taiwan.” These included Flat Panel Display, LED Lighting, Solar PV, Opto-Electronics and Opto-communications. Some of the products were a crystal bulb with superior characteristics to replace candle bulb, Non – Light Guide Thin Panel LED Lighting, Non – Electric Solar tracking system, 11.4” Transparent & Colourful Reflective Liquid Crystal Display, Micro inverters system for Solar power plants, High precision Solar Tracker etc.

Photonics Industry Development Association (PIDA) conducted many conferences & Seminars on all subjects pertaining to Optics, Bio-photonics, Solar energy, LED Lighting, Plant Factory, OLED Lighting, Solid Works. Our delegation was invited to attend LED Lighting Business opportunity in Emerging Markets & One -on-One Procurement Meeting on 19th of June at Nan gang Exibition Center. The CEO of PIDA, Mr. Fred Ma opened the event with a welcome address, Mr. Evgeny Dolin, General Director of Russian LED & SSL Industry Association gave a presentation that LED was invented in Russia way back in 1923 by Oleg Losev and an SSL was patented in 1927. He also said that Russia has 3 epitaxial teams and 7 LED manufacturers. Mr. Victor Sorokin, President, Association of LED Equipments Manufacturers (Ukraine) presented a few facts including pitfalls due to lack of standardization in LED Equipment in Ukraine.

Mr. Varun Sachar, President & CEO of Ventus Energy India Ltd. Mentioned that LED Lighting is around 215 million USD in 2013 and expected to be around 500 million USD by 2014. He also emphasized that India is a price sensitive and quality conscious market. Mr. Cihangir Mihoglu, Import – Export Manager of LAMPTIME, Turkey put forth that Turkey is the most vibrant emerging market in Europe and has great opportunity to be the next manufacturing hub of Europe due to the fact that it has an inexpensive qualified labour force, excellent infrastructure, proximity to European Union and a Government that is very responsive towards setting up of Industries as also a low tax structure. The programme concluded with lunch and the afternoon session comprised of oneto-one procurement meetings with invited buyers & Taiwan suppliers. The invited buyers were taken round the exhibition to see the various products and were introduced to the companies showcasing the products for mutual business.

The PIDA exhibition had more than 500 booths and was an eye opener for MSE’s to witness the latest in Manufacturing Technology and the close links between the Academia and Industries. Taiwan is the only country in Asia Pacific rim countries where SME’s flourish and can be a role model for India growth engine in Manufacturing.

The delegation is grateful to Mr. Shambhu Hakki, DDG of India - Taipei Association who facilitated the contacts of Taiwanese companies who are interested to associate with Indian companies. The delegation visited the manufacturing facility of M/S DECA SwitchLab INC on the morning of 18th of June at Taipei. The delegation was received by Mr. Jack Wu, General Manager, Mr. Tang Huang, Export Sales Dept./ Project Manager & Ms. Myra Ho, Export Sales Department. The meeting started with a presentation on the company and their products. DECA Switchlab INC. manufactures more than 500 different varieties of connectors and switches and have 60% of the world market. After a lunch with the owners of DECA SwitchLab INC., the delegation visited M/S. EPISTAR in Hsinchu Science Park, about 100km from Taipei. EPISTAR is the world’s second largest manufacturer of LED and as a group the turnover is in excess of 4 Billion USD.

Mr. Fushing Lai, Special Assistant, President’s Office, welcomed the delegation and the meeting was attended by Mr. Chao Nien Huang, Vice President Business Development Center & Mr. Ita Lin, Associate Vice President, Marketing Center from EPISTAR. Mr. Fushing Lai gave a presentation on EPISTAR Group and its products which have a world wide market, and demonstrated LED 7w bulb to replace incandescent lamps of 40w. The delegation had an apprehension about the sales potential in the Indian market, because the price of an Incandescent lamp is about Rs. 15 (USD 0.25) whereas a 7w LED bulb would cost about Rs. 540(USD 9.0).

Motech Solar, a global leader in crystalline Silicon panels, met with the delegation in Taipei, where there were fruitful discussions for collaboration in solar panels, solar inverters and other products of mutual interest. Motech Solar already has several business relationships across India and are keen to expand their India footprint across their product portfolio. Both the above visits demonstrated the keen interest of Taiwanese solar companies to create mutually beneficial partnerships with Indian counterparts to expand both geographical and product footprint and to create India-specific products.