The nation's investment in China has increased by leaps and bounds over the past five years, officials from the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Having surged in both scale and scope, the amount of China-bound investments constituted an alarmingly high 67.24 percent of the entire investment that Taiwan made overseas last year, commission officials said.
According to tallies compiled by the Investment Commission, Taiwan businessmen channeled some US$41.94 billion into China in 33,314 investment projects between January 1991 and February this year.
However, according to figures released by the Chinese authorities, Taiwan businessmen had committed some US$77.37 billion for 63,616 projects in China as of September last year, although only US$39.37 billion was actually implemented.
Taiwan's China-bound investment also soared proportionally in terms of ratio of investment in China and Taiwan's overall investment overseas, commission officials said.
Investment Commission statistics show that China-bound investment constituted 33.93 percent of the nation's entire investment overseas in 2000, gradually climbing to 38.8 percent in 2001, 53.38 percent in 2002, 53.66 percent in 2003 and 67.24 percent last year.
China has not only become the top absorber of Taiwan investment, the proportion has also increased to surpass two-thirds, the officials said.
By industry, they added, the electronics industry has remained the largest investor over the past five years, making up 41 percent of the entire Taiwan investment in China.
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