The nation’s investments to countries targeted by the government’s New Southbound Policy in the first 10 months rose 99.51 percent year-on-year to US$3.48 billion, driven by surging investments to Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, the Investment Commission said yesterday.
“The statistics showed Taiwanese firms’ growing interest in investing in southbound nations,” a commission official said by telephone.
Taiwanese investments to Australia ballooned 2,117.3 percent annually, including Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團) March investment of US$590 million in Formosa Resources Australia Pty to expand the firm’s mining operations in the country.
Taiwanese investments in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines centered on the financial sector, such as CTBC Bank Co’s (中國信託銀行) investment of US$471 million in LH Financial Group Public Co Ltd in Thailand, and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) and Cathay Life Insurance Co’s (國泰人壽) joint investment of US$255 million in the Bank of Nova Scotia Berhad in Malaysia, he said.
Investments from Southbound nations in Taiwan in the first 10 months expanded 22.85 percent year-on-year to a combined US$229 million, the report said.
Although the scale of the growth was in the double-digit percentages, the amount of capital injection was still relatively small, compared with investments from other foreign nations, including China, the official said.
Singaporean property developer Sunhaven Pte Ltd’s NT$994.29 million (US$33.03 million) investment in L’Hotel de Chine Group (雲朗觀光) was the largest single investment from a Southbound nation so far this year, he said.
Investments in Taiwan from China dropped 16.87 percent to US$179.56 million, while China-bound investments also dropped 7.95 percent year-on-year to US$6.84 billion, the report said.
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