The government may allow a number of companies to invest more in China but will not grant an overall relaxation of its investment restrictions, a senior government official said.
The policy relaxation may come at the government-sponsored Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development on Thursday and Friday.
More than 100 government officials, scholars, lawmakers and business leaders are due to meet at the conference in an effort to plot a course for the nation's future economic development.
The business community wants the government to relax its limits on investment in China so their businesses can stay competitive there and in global markets. A few business leaders had threatened to walk out of the two-day conference if authorities refused to meet their demands.
But Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development which is organizing the forum, said authorities hope to prevent a big jump in China investments.
Any relaxation of the rules should come gradually to avoid a sharp impact on the economy and worsen the unemployment problem, he said.
The forum is aimed at "seeking solutions to the long-term structural problems facing the economy," Hu said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.
"The government will not announce a [big] opening of the investment rule for all companies," he said.
But "individual companies can seek special approval if their investment has hit the legal ceiling. We will give conditional approval to companies that meet certain criteria." He declined to give specifics.
Currently, Taiwanese companies with a net worth below NT$5 billion (US$150,000) can invest up to 40 percent of that amount in China.
The limit is 30 percent for companies with a net worth up to NT$10 billion, and 20 percent for that above NT$10 billion.
To date, Taiwanese have poured US$100 billion to US$150 billion into China to take advantage of the country's cheaper labor costs.
Last year Taiwanese investment in China accounted for 71 percent of the nation's overall investment abroad, and exports to China and Hong Kong together accounted for 38 percent of Taiwan's total exports, according to the Mainland Affairs Council.
The council proposed setting up a fund to help companies invest more in the oil-rich Middle East and other countries to reduce the nation's reliance on the Chinese market.
Early this month, President Chen Shui-bian (
"The government mustn't close its eyes to these warning signs, and should more actively come up with measures to respond," he said.
Hu said the economic conference this week will also tackle other issues such as financial reforms, environment protection, and fiscal reforms.
The conference's conclusions will serve as guidelines for government policy, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last