The nation has secured NT$1.03 trillion (US$33.9 billion) in private investment during the first nine months of the year and achieved 79.46 percent of its annual target of NT$1.33 trillion in private investment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.
The nine-month figure was also 11.41 percent higher than the NT$927.1 billion in private investment obtained during the same period last year, the ministry said.
The ministry said foreign investment totaled US$8.43 billion from January through last month, reaching 78.06 percent of its annual target.
“Overseas Taiwanese businesses that returned to their home market also have invested NT$97.1 billion, reaching 93.8 percent of the ministry’s target,” Industrial Policy Division Director Hsiao Chen-jung (蕭振榮) told a press conference.
The electronics and IT industries led the new private investment in the first nine months with NT$425.4 billion, followed by the metal and mechanical industries with NT$249.1 billion, and NT$245.1 billion in the consumer goods and chemical industries, the ministry said.
Hsiao said an increasing number of businesses are planning to expand their investment in several local industries, adding that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is likely to invest more than NT$100 billion in advanced process technology equipment this year.
A pharmaceutical company, which the ministry declined to name, is also scheduled to invest NT$5 billion to NT$6 billion in central Taiwan to make new generic drugs, he said.
“A famous central Taiwan-based machinery manufacturer and Google will also increase their investment in Taiwan by the end of this year,” he said, without elaborating.
Separately, a ministry-led trade delegation recently signed several letters of intent with four US-based companies, Department of Investment Services Director-General Vivian Lien (連玉蘋) said on Monday.
In order to attract US investments to Taiwan, the ministry recently sent a delegation to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco for a week-long visit, he said.
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