India weighs new visa rules as lack of China technicians, trainers hurts factory sector

Companies suffer delays to expansion plans, production amid glacial pace of visa issuance

- Nirmala Ganapathy

A dearth of qualified Chinese technicians and trainers due to the glacial pace of visa issuance has hurt India's manufacturing sector, prompting the government to mull over new rules to facilitate approvals.

Industry executives said the new rules would smoothen visa approvals for various industries - ranging from electronics to footwear manufacturing where Chinese technicians and trainers are needed to install and repair equipment or provide technical know-how.

"We have been given to understand (by the government) that the process, to a large extent, is likely to be streamlined," Dr Ajay Sahai, director-general and chief executive of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, told The Straits Times.

"The main challenge faced by the industry is due to the investment in a plant or machinery from China. Because of a lack of visas for technicians, production has been hit," he added.

The backlog of visa applications is large as many as 5,000 Chinese technicians and trainers are currently waiting for a visa, The Economic Times newspaper reported.

The Indian media reported that the Home Ministry is drafting a new standard operating procedure for visa applications.

However, the details of the new visa procedure are yet to be made public, and there is little clarity on the timeline for it to be implemented.

Queries from The Straits Times to the home and commerce ministries on the new visa policy were not answered at the time of publication.

The Farida Group - a leather goods and footwear exporter with a turnover of 20 billion rupees (S$324 million) is one of the manufacturers whose expansion plans have been hit by the delays.

Nine months ago, it put in visa requests for 10 Chinese technicians.