The Investment Commission approved Taiwan’s outward investment of US$850 million in Vietnam in the first 11 months of last year, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all outward investment in ASEAN, with 54.1 percent of the investment in the manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.
Taiwan’s investment in the electronic components, computer, electronics and optical product manufacturing industries accounted for 22.1 percent of the total investment in Vietnam, compared with only 3.3 percent in all of 2018, as the US-China trade dispute forced companies in high-tech industries to reorganize their supply chains to avoid hefty US tariffs on products made in China, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s major investments in Vietnam over the past few years have been in the traditional textile, base metal and chemical industries, but Vietnam’s fast-growing domestic market spurred Taiwanese firms to increase investment in the solar power and real-estate sectors by 31.8 percent during the first 11 months of last year, compared with the whole of 2018.
Vietnam has become one of the most popular destinations for Taiwanese investors, as it is one of the countries covered by the New Southbound Policy, which aims to promote exchanges with ASEAN, member countries, as well as Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Australia, to reduce the country’s economic reliance on China.
As a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Vietnam has seen an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the past few years.
For the first 11 months of last year, FDI from Taiwan to Vietnam totaled US$1.53 billion, accounting for 4.8 percent of its total FDI, up 1.8 percentage points from all of 2018, Vietnamese Foreign Investment Agency statistics showed.
Taiwan was the fifth-largest foreign investor in Vietnam, the statistics showed.
Vietnam attracted US$31.8 billion in FDI in the first 11 months of last year, up 3 percent year-on-year, the agency said.
Among the 117 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Hong Kong and China were the largest with US$10.26 billion, making up 32.3 percent of the total during the 11-month period, followed by South Korea with US$5.73 billion (18 percent) and Singapore with US$4.47 billion (14 percent).
Taiwan’s exports to Vietnam during the 11-month period totaled US$9.85 billion, up 0.3 percent year-on-year.
With the signing of a new bilateral investment agreement last month, Taiwan’s investment in the Southeast Asian country is expected to increase more, the ministry said.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS