Taiwan's inward foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to a record high of US$7.42 billion last year, ranking sixth in South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia, according to the World Investment Report 2007 released on Tuesday.
Taiwan ranked behind only China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Thailand in the region in terms of inward forward direct investment, according to the annual report, which was published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Inward foreign direct investment last year increased 356 percent over 2005's figure of US$1.62 billion and 291 percent over 2004's figure of US$1.89 billion.
Outward foreign direct investment totaled US$7.39 billion last year, ranking the country fifth in the region behind Hong Kong, China, India and Singapore.
The amount marked an increase of 22.74 percent over the figure of US$6.02 billion for 2005 and a 3.56 percent increase from US$7.14 billion in 2004.
Last year the total FDI inflows to South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia amounted to a record high of US$200 billion, marking an increase of 19 percent over 2005.
The report shows that Taiwan ranked 119th in the world in terms of the Inward FDI Performance Index for last year, while the country ranked 20th in terms of its Inward FDI Potential Index for 2005 -- the most recent year for which data is available.
Based on these results, Taiwan was placed in the category of "below potential" countries, those that have high FDI potential but low FDI performance.
The Inward FDI Performance Index ranks countries according to the ratio of a country's share of global FDI inflows to its share of global GDP.
The Inward FDI Potential Index is an average of the values of 12 variables expected to affect an economy's attractiveness to foreign investors.
A senior UNCTAD economist told the Central News Agency that "below potential" countries tend to be less dependent on FDI inflows in pursuing their development goals.
For example, the US saw its Inward FDI Performance Index ranking somewhere around 120th for three consecutive years to last year, although it maintained its top position in terms of its Inward FDI Potential Index for 2004 and 2005, the economist said.
He noted that Taiwan's Outward FDI Performance Index ranked 27th, 27th and 26th, respectively, for the three years between 2004 to last year, which may indicate that Taiwan and its businesses tend to rely on outward FDI to enhance their international competitiveness.
Similarly, France ranked 87th, 78th and 74th respectively, for the same three years, while the country's Outward FDI Performance Index ranked 19th, 16th and 17th over those years, he said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS