The nation's investment in China in the eight months to August rose 60.5 percent year-on-year to US$4.4 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs's Investment Commission said yesterday.
The commission approved 1,474 China-bound investment applications in the eight-month period, 55.42 percent of them going to Jiangsu Province and 19.99 percent to Guangdong Province.
In August alone, the investment agency approved 157 China-bound investment applications worth US$628 million.
The amount is more than triple from US$196 million in the same month of last year as manufacturers expanded their Chinese production.
Foreign direct investment in Taiwan fell 30 percent to US$244 million last month from US$348 million a year earlier. In the first eight months, foreign direct investment rose 25 percent to US$2.3 billion from US$1.9 billion.
Taiwanese authorities have urged domestic enterprises to reduce risks by diversifying some of their investments away from China into Southeast Asia, South Asia and Eastern Europe. But there has been no significant movement of funds out of China to elsewhere.
During the eight-month period, the commission approved 438 non-China outbound investment applications worth US$1.83 billion, down 11.13 percent from 2003.
With or without government approval, Taiwan companies have poured at least US$80 billion into China since the late 1980s.
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