The new chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce (ECCT) in Taipei yesterday urged Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to improve the investment climate in the city by improving regulatory transparency and consistency.
Hugh Inman, the new chairman of the ECCT, said foreign companies might be forced to choose other countries as alternative investment targets because of inconsistent policy-making in Taiwan.
Inman was referring to an incident in which the European company Vivendi Water Asia was forced to cancel a contract with the city government for a water treatment project in Neihu District after the central government found the bidding process violated the Government Procurement Act.
The Cabinet's Public Construction Commission said the city government had illegally given preferential status to the foreign contractor.
The ECCT said that such disorganization between the different levels of government deterred foreign companies from investing in Taiwan.
"There is a lack of clarity and consistency as a general rule for not only Taipei but Taiwan as a whole. The problem is that we want to invest here, if there is consistency, clarity and assurances that these sudden changes won't occur. Otherwise, we are not going to move that way," the ECCT chairman said.
He urged the city government to take the lead in enhancing the overall investment climate by improving the accessibility and availability of information to foreigners.
"There are areas, whether it comes technically from the GPA or not, that foreign firms are specifically excluded in certain contracts, like the airport," Inman said, adding that foreign investors wanted to "play on a level playing field competitively."
In response to Inman's comments, Ma said yesterday, "We consider that [Vivendi] as a special case and we will try everything possible to assure the foreign community here that this will not happen again. If this happens again, all our efforts to attract foreign investment will go nowhere."
The ECCT chairman also sought help from the city government on behalf of the European community to provide more classrooms for the European School.
"As more and more companies are coming to Taiwan, schooling is becoming more and more important. The demand [for schooling] is even greater than anticipated," Inman said.
The European School has two campuses: one on Yangmingshan and another on Wenlin Road in Shihlin.
The lease on the Shihlin campus, attended by 300 kindergarten children, expires in December.
Ma said his administration had planned to help the European School on a short-term basis find temporary classrooms for the 300 students. In the long run, the city government said it wished to help find a proper place to meet the growing number of European pupils.
RSS