Taiwan will likely start allowing insurance companies to set up branches in China next year, the latest move to relax restrictions on business ties with the communist rival, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.
The Ministry of Finance plans to submit a proposal for the policy change to the Cabinet this week, and the insurers might be able to start operating in China's growing market as soon as January, the newspaper quoted unidentified officials as saying.
Officials in the finance ministry could not be reached to confirm the report.
Some of Taiwan's biggest insurance firms -- including Cathay Life Insurance Corp (
The finance ministry has so far permited nine Taiwan-based insurance companies to open offices on the other side of the Taiwan Strait for collecting information but not for conducting business operations.
Representative offices in China would be able to apply to set up branches in January after two years of operating a representative office under Chinese regulations, the paper said.
Taiwanese securities firms have also lobbied hard for permission to set up in China, saying Taiwan should ease trade restrictions since the island joined the WTO last January.
But the report said securities firms may not be allowed to invest in China soon, partly because Beijing imposes stringent rules on foreign securities investments.
Business ties between rivals Taiwan and China have grown rapidly in the past decade.
Taiwan has been aggressively expanding commercial relations with China in the past year, scrapping a cap on investments in China and relaxing rules that restricted investment in many types of high-tech ventures on the mainland.
The finance ministry plans to allow lenders, brokerages and insurers to open branches in China with an investment ceiling of NT$800 million (US$23 million), the newspaper said, citing unidentified government officials.
Taiwan, which joined the WTO on Jan. 1, is increasingly lifting investment restrictions on its companies seeking to expand in China, which joined the world trade body in December of last year.
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