New Delhi, June 1 (CNA) Taiwan is looking forward to enhance closer trade and economic ties with India in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, the country's top envoy to the South Asian country said during a recent interview.

In the interview published by eGov Magazine Friday, Tien Chung-kwang shared his views on Taiwan's economic outlook and its economic prospects with India.

Tien said that Taiwan, like other economies around the world, is bracing for a temporary slump amid the COVID-19 pandemic with the launch of a number of response policies, with the aim of reviving its economy.

The measures include three main initiatives -- an action plan to attract Taiwanese businesses overseas to return to invest, a program to help Taiwanese companies with no history of business activity in China and a plan to accelerate investment by small and medium-sized enterprises.

The initiatives are meant to attract investment in the country, particularly in the nation's 5+2 Industrial Innovative plan, its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its 5G action plan, to make the country an advanced manufacturing and R&D hub in Asia, Tien continued.

These efforts have proven successful, according to Tien, as even though the country has seen a decline in its export numbers, its industrial production index enjoyed an increase of 10.4 percent year-on-year in March.

He attributed this to the rise in the expansion of domestic production capacity and demand for 5G applications.

In terms of promoting trade and economic ties with India, the envoy said Taiwan has since May 2016 launched its New Southbound Policy, which seeks to enhance closer exchanges with India, the neighboring Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, Australia and New Zealand.

As a result of the policy and India's "Make in India" policy, Taiwanese companies have been building up a supply chain for electronics in central and southern India, Tien noted.

"As India has been working extensively on sustainable development, Taiwanese industries have continued to exchange knowledge with their Indian counterparts during various forums to seek effective and feasible collaborations," he added.

As Taiwan's response to the pandemic has been widely regarded as "outstanding," Tien concluded by saying that the country is also looking forward to sharing its practices and experiences in the fight against COVID-19 with India, in particular in the field of personal protective equipment (PPE), during the post-coronavirus era.