Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) has approved plans to set up a task force to scout investment opportunities in Vietnam to meet customer demand and support the government’s New Southbound Policy.
With a focus on the development of government-owned industrial parks, the Taipei-based company said it is seeking to replicate its successful experience in Taiwan in the Southeastern Asian nation.
“The task force is to act as a launch pad for the firm’s southward expansion,” TLDC chairman Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) said on Wednesday after the company’s board gave a unanimous support for the outreach plans.
The task force would allow TLDC to take advantage of Vietnam’s fast-growing economy, Chiu said.
Vietnam’s GDP expanded 7.46 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of the year, representing its strongest third-quarter growth since 2010, and higher than the previous quarter’s 6.28 percent growth, statistics released yesterday showed.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) economists attributed the growth to strength in both exports and household spending, as well as contributions from the real-estate sector.
The TLDC board arrived at the decision after independent board director and former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) gave a report of his recent trip to Vietnam, the company said, adding that Lee is to head the task force.
Chiu said some of the company’s clients, especially in the manufacturing industry, have asked for help sourcing plots in Vietnam to meet their capacity expansion needs, because the available land in Taiwan is too small and limiting.
TLDC is eyeing 500 hectare plots for potential industrial parks, Chiu said.
The company also plans to build commercial and residential complexes in Vietnam, he said.
Vietnam’s young population, with an average age of 27 on, is supportive of the southward expansion strategy, he added.
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