A total of 27 multinational companies are expected to sign letters of intent on investing in Taiwan at an investment promotion today to the tune of NT$108.25 billion (US$3.42 billion), the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The companies include eight from the US, six from Japan and six from Europe, while three are Taiwanese-funded companies based overseas and the rest are from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
They are among more than 600 companies — including 150 multinationals — that will attend the investment event in Taipei.
The proposed investment will help generate 12,900 jobs in Taiwan’s electronic, chemical and electric car sectors, the ministry said in a statement.
The 2010 Taiwan Business Alliance Conference — the first investment promotional event since the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) took effect on Sept. 12 — was expected to attract the highest number of participating multinational companies of any investment promotion held in recent years, the ministry said.
“The ECFA has given Taiwan an edge in attracting foreign investment,” said Ling Chia-yuh (凌家裕), chief of the ministry’s Department of Investment Services.
Ling attributed the better-than-expected attendance to the ECFA, which gives local companies preferential tariff treatment on various goods exported to China, as well as wider access to China’s market.
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