Taiwan and Vietnam have signed a new version of a bilateral investment agreement (BIA) to provide better protection for Taiwanese investors in the Southeast Asian nation, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Taipei and Hanoi first signed a BIA in 1993, but as economic exchanges have increased significantly in the past 26 years, the original accord needed to be revised to better protect the rights and interests of Taiwanese companies operating in Vietnam, the ministry said.
The BIA was signed on Wednesday by Representative to Vietnam Richard Shih (石瑞琦) and Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Director Nguyen Anh Dung.
The BIA includes a clause to ensure that Taiwanese and Vietnamese investors enjoy equal treatment in each other’s countries, as well as a performance requirement prohibition clause, which bars Vietnamese authorities from demanding that Taiwanese firms comply with local content requirements.
The new pact has an investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanism to facilitate negotiations between Taiwanese investors and the Vietnamese government.
If the disputes cannot be resolved in six months, they would be able to resort to international arbitration.
When Taiwanese investors encounter investment obstacles, the Taiwanese government would also be able to negotiate with its Vietnamese counterpart for assistance in removing the hurdles, the ministry said.
Taiwan signed new BIAs with the Philippines and India in 2017 and last year respectively, and it is in talks with other countries covered by the New Southbound Policy to sign new BIAs, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said.
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