Taiwan wraps up presentation on foreign investment

The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSE, 台灣證券交易所) yesterday wrapped up Taiwan's biggest-ever investment presentation to woo foreign investment, drawing the participation of 130 foreign corporations, TSE Chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said.

The three-day presentation, organized by the TSE and Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券), started on Wednesday.

Eighty of Taiwan's listed companies took part in the presentation designed to seek investment from foreign corporations, with each foreign firm having eight face-to-face seminars with local companies during the three days.

Foreign participants had positive views about the influence of next Saturday's presidential election and showed keen interest in Taiwanese shares because of the rising New Taiwan dollar, Wu said.

Wu said the TSE used to hold business presentations overseas to introduce Taiwan's industrial development and competitive advantages, but this was the first time Taiwan had held this type of presentation at home.

He expressed hope that the business presentation would help increase the proportion of foreign investment, saying that foreign investment transactions account for about 30 percent of the Taipei market, while about 60 percent are individual stock investments.

He said that Taiwan's companies that receive the highest amount of foreign investment are in the high-tech sector, with the average stock-holding ratio of foreign investment in these companies at over 60 percent.

The TSE will seek more opportunities to introduce small and medium-sized enterprises to foreign investors to increase their stock holding ratios, Wu added.