Delay in visa approvals for Chinese hurting Indian businesses: Report

The delays in granting visas to Chinese nationals and clearing investment plans for Chinese companies by the Centre are impacting Indian businesses, The Economic Times (ET) reported on Thursday. Several Indian projects where Chinese companies or individuals were involved have been delayed or even scrapped.

The Tata Group has recently called off a proposed joint venture between its Voltas and Chinese compressor maker Highly International as "regulatory approvals were not forthcoming". The JV was supposed to invest Rs 500 crore in manufacturing AC compressors.

Another such project was a new Rs 400 crore unit for manufacturing refrigerators by Dixon Technologies. It has been delayed owing to delays in visa approvals for Chinese engineers.

Apart from new projects, in several cases, companies do not have their India chief executive officers in the country for several months now. It is because they have not been able to get visa approvals to enter India. These include Vivo India CEO Jerome Chen, Oppo India CEO Elvis Zhou and sales director Chen Min, and Xiaomi's India head Alvin Tse.

Madhav Seth, Realme's president of international business, was quoted in the report as saying that the Centre is evaluating all the Chinese visa applications individually. He said that the Centre wants businesses to operate independently in India, but it would take time to build skills, and domestic companies need support from foreign professionals, including from China and Taiwan.

Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of mobile phone and electronics manufacturers body India Cellular and Electronics Association, was also quoted in the report as saying, "Delay and restrictions in issuing business and employment visas is a major bottleneck in ensuring expansion and increasing value addition."

The relationship between the two countries has soured, especially since the Galwan clash in 2020.