A visiting British minister yesterday urged the Taiwan government to open up major infrastructure projects to overseas investors.
"I believe it is important that we cut to the chase with designated ministers," Nigel Griffiths, the UK's minister for small business and a key member of the UK's trade promotion, investment and policy committee said yesterday.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He made the comments while speaking to members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei yesterday. "Taiwan [must be] willing to open up its markets, liberalize and make them transparent so that UK companies working with Taiwan partners have the same opportunities as Taiwan's perceived monopolies."
Griffiths was in town to lobby the government on behalf of British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell Group who are bidding for a contract to supply 1.7 million tonnes a year of natural gas to state-utility Taiwan Power Co (Taipower,
The project is worth ?500 million (US$787.6 million) over the next year and a further ?12 billion over 25 years to the British companies.
Griffiths was also lobbying on behalf of Rolls Royce, which together with Airbus, is trying to fight off US-based Boeing in a contract to supply new planes to China Airlines.
Awarding the contracts to the British companies would send a powerful message to other British companies that the business environment here is transparent and fair, Griffiths said.
As an example of a existing barrier to investment, Griffiths said Land Rover vehicles are subject to a 75 percent duty charge in Taiwan.
"I think these kinds of tariffs are short-sighted, and in the modern world, detrimental to nations," he told the Taipei Times.
Allowing foreign companies to bid for major government construction projects has been a key sticking point between Taiwan and the international business community.
"We've been hammering away at the government to open up the bidding for public procurement projects to foreign companies, especially Europeans, since we have the expertise to improve Taiwan's infrastructure," Guy Wittich, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei said yesterday. "[Opening up the bidding] also drives down costs as there is more competition."
A recent case of foreign companies being excluded from public projects occurred last fall when only Taiwanese firms were invited to bid for a new bridge linking the two terminals of Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taoyuan, Wittich said. A contract to improve the power supply to Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park is currently out for tender, but it is unclear whether foreigners will be invited to bid.
"Europeans have been exporting this kind of [power generation] technology for decades," Wittich said. "We believe it is in the interests of both the Taiwan government and the European business community to open these bids up."
One added problem is inconsistencies in how procurement laws are applied. One member of the European chamber recently won an infrastructure project from a local government office on the island, only to have it withdrawn when the central government said officials should not have outsourced the deal, Wittich said.
"If Taiwan wants to attract more foreign investment, it needs to be consistent in the implementation of its laws."
In the run-up to its WTO entry in January 2002, Taiwan drew up new laws for public procurement that conform broadly to the organization's norms. Those laws were passed in 1999, Angela Wu (
Even under the current terms of the WTO, Taiwan should be committed to fair and open procurement practices. "The Taiwan government is fully committed to signing the GPA, but there are still contracts that foreigners cannot bid for," Wu said. The government needs to go further in its changes, Wu said. Wu is also chair of the European chamber's telecommunications committee.
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