Fresh off the plane from a 10-day trip to Europe, Minister of Finance Yen Chin-chang (
"After meeting with over 200 foreign investment institutions in Europe, the ministry estimates that US$15 to US$20 billion in investment in the Taiwan stock market is likely," Yen said.
The funds are equivalent to 6.4 percent of the stock market's current US$235 billion capitalization.
Yen spent 10 days promoting the plan in Europe, holding "Taiwan Investment Forums" in the six European cities of Milan, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and Zurich. Yen also held 18 private meetings with 28 European fund managers during the trip.
The ministry said total assets or investment funds managed by the 200 financial institutions amounts to US$3.65 trillion.
The finance minister's trip, organized in association with the investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston, signals a highly proactive stance towards foreign investors.
Accompanying Yen to Europe were several government officials and dozens of executives from domestic financial institutions, including Benny Hu (
Yen added that the recent passage of financial reform laws helped sell the Europeans on the idea of investing in Taiwan.
"The passage of the six financial laws and regulations was an important issue during the trip to Europe," Yen said.
The laws -- which were approved by the Legislative Yuan in a special session last week -- won praise from European investors.
"Most fund managers in Europe have been very concerned about the issue, so when the six laws passed [last week] while we were in Frankfurt, local fund managers [reacted] positively."
Yen went on to outline the reform agenda he touted in Europe. "I stressed that there are four main directions for Taiwan's current financial reform efforts," he said.
"They include enlarging the economies of scale of Taiwan's financial institutions as well as business scope, improving the asset quality of financial institutions, raising the standard for financial information disclosures and improving the liberalization of the capital market," Yen said.
According to Yen, the goal of the trip was to "entice more foreign investment to Taiwan's stock market, [but] we also invited the European financial institutions to set up operations in Taiwan, directly or through mergers and acquisitions."
Yen said that Sean Chen (
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