Good news for service sector

Banking and insurance operations might top a list that the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to soon make public regarding businesses in Taiwan's service industry that will be allowed to invest in China. Some 46 categories in the service industry, including civil air services, customs brokerage services, arts and literary-related businesses and professional sports, are likely to be included on the list, Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生), executive secretary of the ministry's Investment Commission, said Wednesday. Investment Commission officials are still exchanging views with the Mainland Affairs Council over whether the 13 categories in the service industry that were previously banned from investing in China should be liberalized, Tsai said. The 13 categories are highway development, water conservation engineering, railway construction, harbor and port development, tap water system development, pedestrian underpass construction, airports, mass rapid transit systems, incinerators, electricity generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution and industrial zone development.