Lin pushes Taiwan to Dutch at seminar

Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), traveling at the head of a 50-member business and industrial promotion mission, has hosted an investment workshop in The Hague in an effort to woo Dutch business-people to invest in Taiwan.

Lin and his workshop received a warm reception from leading multinational corporations in the Netherlands, many of which have shown keen interest in promoting sales in Taiwan, expanding investment in their Taiwanese operations, or establishing research and development centers in Taiwan.

According to Philips chairman Gerard Kleisterlee, who attended the workshop, the fact that the euro is continuing to appreciate in value against the US dollar is pushing leading European conglomerates to relocate their business-operations headquarters or R&D centers to Asia out of cost considerations.

Lin spent time persuading Kleisterlee to consider making Taiwan Philips' R&D center in the Asia-Pacific region, given that Philips is already the largest Dutch company in Taiwan and one of the major foreign investors in the country.

Peter Wennik, vice chairman and finance director of ASML Holding NV, the global leader in the market of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry, said ASML is considering spending US$500 million to establish an R&D center in Asia to serve as a bridgehead to tap the market in this part of the world.