The government is planning to renew bilateral investment agreements (BIA) with six Southeast Asian nations as part of its New Southbound Policy, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) said yesterday.
A BIA with the Philippines is expected to be renewed by the end of this year, said Deng, who is also the Office of Trade Negotiations’ chief representative.
4 PERCENT
Deng said that BIAs have been established with eight of the 18 nations targeted by the policy, which is aimed at forging closer economic ties with the 10 ASEAN members, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
The eight countries with which Taiwan has BIAs are Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Singapore and New Zealand, Deng said.
GO WAY BACK
Among them, Singapore and New Zealand have signed free-trade agreements with Taiwan, while the BIAs with the six other countries have been in place for a long time, in some cases for more than 20 years, Deng said.
The government is making plans to negotiate renewals, he added.
Deng said that the government’s plan to earmark more than NT$100 billion (US$3.32 billion) to help Taiwanese businesses undertake public construction projects in countries targeted by the New Southbound Policy has nothing to do with “dollar diplomacy.”
Rather, the money will be used to help Taiwanese enterprises seek business opportunities, Deng said.
STRATEGIES
He was responding to an editorial in yesterday’s Chinese-language United Daily News that said that the government is re-initiating “dollar diplomacy” with its plan unveiled by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The plan would set up a strategic financing mechanism that would allocate US$3.5 billion to fund enterprises cooperating in projects with the policy’s target countries.
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