Political and economic analysts yesterday warned that raising the cap on China-bound investment would be detrimental to the nation's economy.
Panelists taking part at a forum hosted by the Taiwan Advocates yesterday said the recent buyout of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) was irrelevant to the issue of whether to raise the investment cap and should not be used by the government or companies to justify such a move.
The government currently caps domestic companies' China-bound investment at 40 percent of their net worth, a restriction that many companies have long wanted changed.
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Taiwan Futures Exchange chairman Wu Rong-i (
He said that ASE's investment in China is less than 10 percent of its net worth.
Therefore, Wu said, he did not think the buyout aimed to break the investment cap.
"The total amount of the buyout cases that the world dealt with in Asia was about US$35 billion last year. We should see that foreign-invested companies showed their confidence in Taiwan and our people should show the same faith in our economy," he said.
Former national policy adviser Huang Tien-lin (
"I think it is a simple merger and it is inappropriate to relate this case to the discussion of the removal of the cap on China-bound investment," Huang said.
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Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang To-far (
"A high unemployment in Taiwan is an expectable scenario and will deepen the poverty gap in Taiwan," Wang said.
Kenneth Lin (
The Cabinet promoted the "Big Investment, Big Warmth" plan in September.
The plan aimed to create a beneficial investment environment for domestic and international investors within three years.
"The Cabinet should not only make a policy that focuses on promoting the economic growth rate," he said. "It should put more emphasis on the growth of the employment rate."
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