European businesses specializing in design and branding will be Taiwanese manufacturers’ best partners for global joint ventures, Guy Ledoux, head of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, said yesterday.
“Taiwan is very strong in producing goods and Europe is strong in design and branding. If the two can be combined, a good opportunity for joint ventures can be created,” Ledoux told a media briefing for the release of the office’s 2008 EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Factfile.
Citing statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ledoux said that the EU has become the largest foreign investor in Taiwan, with more than 25 percent of foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, worth US$24 billion.
The US had 19 percent of the FDI and Japan 16 percent.
However, the trade office encouraged Taiwanese to look to Europe, saying that “it’s time [for Taiwanese investments] to move [into the EU].”
Citing Eurostat data, Taiwanese investment in the EU dropped to 700 million euros (US$450.3 million) in 2003, but had rebounded to 1.1 billion euros at the end of 2006, the report said.
South Korean investments in the EU jumped to more than 8 billion euros in 2006 from less than 4 billion euros in 2003, the data showed.
“Taiwanese are not fully aware of the size of European economies and there’s a lack of knowledge” about European businesses, which poses the biggest hurdle for Taiwanese businesses seeking investment destinations within the EU, Ledoux said.
Taiwan is the EU’s 13th-largest trading partner and the EU is the fourth-largest market for Taiwanese exports after China, Japan and the US.
Expressing his support for the government’s efforts to open up Taiwan’s economy, Ledoux said consumer products remain a weak link in trade relations. He urged the government to remove trade barriers, especially on European food products, saying that Taiwan was keeping European food products out, while South Korea has fully welcome such imports.
He said the EU had confidence in Taiwan’s economy and welcomed the positive momentum in the development of cross-strait relations.
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