As the Chen Shui-bian (
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yin Chi-ming (
Accompanied by three economic officials and a group of doctoral students from the National Chengchi University (政治大學) where he serves as an associate professor, Yin was quoted as saying that through the trip, he aimed to "gain a picture of China's industrial development, the privileges offered by the mainland industrial parks to woo investment, and the present situation regarding Taiwanese investments," the report said.
While the report did not indicate whether Yin was scheduled to meet with any Chinese officials, it said that the Taiwan official in charge of industrial policy may meet with China's Science and Technology Minister Zhu Lilan (
The report also said that Yin is slated to visit several Taiwanese firms operating in China, including Grace Semiconductor Co (宏力半導體) in Shanghai -- an 8-inch wafer foundry set up jointly by Jiang Mianheng (江綿衡), son of Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), and Winston Wang (王文洋), son of Taiwanese industrial tycoon Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), chairman of the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團).
The trip comes ahead of an economic ministry proposal to revise China-bound investment restrictions -- such as an easing of the ban on investments in upstream petrochemical projects, contract semiconductor fabs and personal computers plants -- in line with both government's eventual entry into WTO.
The proposal of revisions is slated to be submitted to the Executive Yuan later this week, which will have the final say on whether the revisions are implemented, the report said.
Taiwan embarked on the "no haste" policy in 1996 when former president Lee Teng-hui (
Under the government's policy, the financial cap on single investments in China has been pegged at US$50 million, with special limitations on investments in China's high-technology or infrastructure projects.
Despite the ban, China has fast become one of Taiwan's biggest markets for investment and trade. According to the Central Bank of China (
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