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.
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