The government yesterday designated a single-window clearance to provide assistance to and facilitate the processing of investors’ applications, targeting mainly China-based Taiwanese businesspeople.
As rising labor costs and other factors in China make its investment climate less favorable and other countries vie to offer incentives to investors mulling pulling out of China, Taiwan must also enhance its efforts to encourage overseas Taiwanese businesspeople to invest at home, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) told a press conference.
The Cabinet announced a short-term plan to lure Taiwanese businesspeople home, with a goal of attracting NT$100 billion (US$3.42 billion) in each of the next two years to create NT$227.8 billion worth of export value, or NT$303.7 billion worth of output value, and provide 82,000 jobs for Taiwanese.
If the proposal works, it will add 0.31 percentage points to GDP growth and push the jobless rate down by 0.8 percentage points, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said.
Under the plan, which will run until the end of 2014, Taiwanese businesspeople whose investment proposals meet criteria and can complete construction of a factory within three years of applying are entitled to a set of incentives to address problems such as shortage of skilled labor, land acquisition and securing loans.
The designated one-stop shop, the Executive Yuan Global Investment Promotion Service Center, opens today in central Taipei.
To qualify for incentives under this plan, a manufacturer must be a global exporter of products with its own brand, hold a strategic manufacturing position within global supply chains, be a producer of high value-added products or key components, or be a multinational corporation with its research and development center or headquarters set up in Taiwan.
The threshold for high-tech manufacturing was set at NT$500 million invested in a project and NT$100 million for other firms, while a qualified investor was required to hire at least 100 Taiwanese in the first year after its facility is completed.
The incentives included a relaxation of rules governing the recruitment of foreign workers, an information platform for land acquisitions and policies to cultivate technicians and professionals, offerring loans of up to NT$10 billion at an interest rate of less than 2.375 percent, reducing tariffs on imports of manufacturing equipment and assisting the manufacturers in tapping China’s markets through the cross-strait Economic and Cooperation Agreement Framework.
Several business representatives were invited by the Cabinet to attend yesterday’s press conference.
World Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce president Lee Fang-hsin (李芳信) praised the government for its willingness to adopt a laissez-faire and flexible approach to improve the local investment environment, but he renewed calls for the government to exempt foreign workers’ wages from the minimum wage.
Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), the architect of the proposal, said that decoupling the standard salary for foreign workers from the minimum wage was not included in the proposal because of lack of consensus in society on the issue, but the council was studying the possibility.
Meanwhile, during a meeting of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he expected the plan to attract Taiwanese businesspeople in China back to Taiwan to revive the economy and create more job opportunities for Taiwanese.
The changing investment environment in China, including stricter environmental protection regulations and rising wages, has prompted more Taiwanese businesses to move to other countries and the nation should step up efforts to improve the local investment environment to attract Taiwanese businesspeople to return to Taiwan, he said.
“We expect the plan to light up the nation’s economic outlook and also heat up the trend for Taiwanese businesses to return to Taiwan,” Ma, who doubles as KMT chairman, said after hearing a presentation on the plan given by Yiin at the meeting.
Ma said the nation has suffered from the industry exodus to China over the past years, and as China-based Taiwanese businesses are rearranging their investments, Taiwan should grab the opportunity to lure them back to Taiwan.
While expressing support for the plan, Ma stressed that the government would continue to protect the interests of local businesses.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a