A procurement delegation from China’s Jiangsu Province is expected to place orders worth as much as US$3 billion from local companies, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) head said yesterday.
More than 60 companies from China and 300-plus local companies met in Taipei yesterday to discuss business cooperation, which would serve as a boon to local enterprises, TAITRA chairman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) told reporters.
The Jiangsu delegation arrived in Taipei on Monday for a six-day visit that will also include visits to industry clusters in the south.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
A number of procurement groups from China have visited Taiwan this year, including delegations from Beijing as well as Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, and their total orders could add up to more than US$16 billion for the year, he said.
Wang said trade between China and Taiwan jumped to US$34 billion last year, from US$3.8 billion in 2001.
Opposition politicians have increasingly criticized the growing number of visits by Chinese delegations as a political tactic to overwhelm Taiwan with Chinese money while weakening the nation’s opposition to China’s unification strategy.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) said yesterday that the Jiangsu delegation’s estimated procurement would be much less than Taiwanese businesses’ total investment in the Chinese province.
Citing data released by Jiangsu Province, the paper said that Taiwanese firms invested US$12.5 billion in the province last year, with accumulated investment totaling US$94.7 billion.
There were more capital outflows from Taiwan to China than Taiwan could gain from these procurement missions, the paper quoted Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) as saying.
Around 60 percent of Taiwan’s top 100 companies have a presence in Jiangsu Province, with investment there accounting for one-third of Taiwanese investment in China, the paper said.
Big names investing there include Acer Inc (宏碁), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), Cheng Shin Rubber Industries Co (正新橡膠工業), BenQ Group (明基集團) and Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團).
Yesterday’s procurement meeting in Taipei was also aimed at enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to explore business opportunities in China, Wang said.
Among the mid-sized companies that attended the event was Mike Biological Technologies (麥可生物科技), a homegrown company specializing in healthcare products.
“We are taking the chance to increase our exposure and we will talk to pharmaceutical companies, drug store and supermarket operators to sell our new healthcare products in China,” manager Chang Yi-heng (張翊恒) said.
The Chinese delegation included foodstuffs company High Hope International Group (匯鴻國際) chairman Song Kaotong (宋考童).
“We just met officials from Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) for a possible order placement. This is our first meeting with them and we will assess the partnership further at a later stage,” Song said.
If the deal is sealed, the company could procure more than US$20 million in materials per year from Formosa Plastics.
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