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China investment up 30.46%
The Investment Commission yesterday said the value of China-bound investment applications approved last year rose 30.46 percent from a year earlier on increasing cross-strait economic exchanges.
The commission approved 996 applications worth US$9.97 billion during the year.
The commission also received 525 registrations of small China-bound investments valued at less than US$200,000 each, totaling US$50.13 million.
During the year, the commission approved 464 non-China outbound investment applications worth a record US$6.47 billion, up 49.93 percent from the previous year. It approved 2,266 foreign direct investment applications worth US$15.36 billion, also a record, up 9.96 percent year-on-year.
Separately, foreign investors registered a net capital inflow of US$6.99 billion for investment in the local stock market last year, the commission said, citing Securities and Futures Bureau statistics.
It said the amount of net inflow was less than in 2006, though it did not say by how much. It blamed the decline on fallout from the US credit crunch.
Hannstar expands Sharp deal
Hannstar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶), Taiwan's fourth-largest liquid-crystal-display maker, expanded a patent agreement with Japan's Sharp Corp to include technology used in flat-screen TV panels.
Hannstar and Sharp, Japan's biggest LCD producer, can use each other's patents for the design of screens used in monitors, laptop computers and TVs until the end of 2011, Hannstar spokesman Chou Chin-hao (周志豪) said by phone yesterday, confirming a company filing to Taiwan's stock exchange.
The five-year contract has been backdated to Jan. 1 last year. Hannstar and Sharp previously only shared LCD patents used for monitors and laptop products, Chou said.
Firms to build Vietnam complex
A unit of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) and the nation's Sunsteel Corp (達豐鋼材) are planning to build a US$6 billion steel complex in Vietnam's Ha Tinh Province, a media report said yesterday.
Formosa Heavy Industry (台塑重工) and Sunsteel are conducting a feasibility study to build the complex with an initial production capacity of 7.5 million tonnes a year, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing an unnamed official with the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The study will be completed in March and operations are planned from 2011, the official said, according to the news agency.
The province is about 400km south of Hanoi and estimated to have up to 540 million tonnes of iron ore.
According to Investment newspaper, which is published by the planning and investment ministry, Formosa Heavy Industry will hold a 95 percent stake and Sunsteel will have a 5 percent stake in the complex.
Ten-year bonds rise again
Taiwan's 10-year bonds rose for a third week as a slide in Asian stocks spurred demand for the relative security of government debt. The local currency advanced for the week.
The yield on the 2 3/8 percent note due September 2017 fell 1.5 basis points this week to 2.541 percent as of the 1:30pm close in Taipei, according to GRETAI Securities Market, Taiwan's biggest exchange for bonds.
NT dollar up versus greenback
The New Taiwan dollar had its biggest weekly advance against the US currency in more than three months.
The local dollar strengthened 0.5 percent in the five days to NT$32.315, according to Taipei Forex Inc, the largest weekly gain since the period ended Sept. 28.
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