Taiwanese yacht builders signed a letter of intent with the Kaohsiung City Government yesterday to increase their investment in the city and take advantage of plans that the city government has mapped out to facilitate their development.
John Lu (呂佳揚), founder and CEO of Horizon Yachts (嘉鴻遊艇) — the largest yacht builder in Asia and sixth-largest in the world — and chairman of the Taiwan Yacht Industry Association, signed the letter of intent on behalf of association members with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).
Lu said that although many Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Qingdao and Shenzhen, have sought to attract Taiwanese yacht builders with investment incentives, he prefers keeping his company based in Kaohsiung.
“The Kaohsiung sail boat industry has its competitiveness, as a cluster of builders has been forming here,” Lu said.
Addressing the signing ceremony, Chen said the development of a yacht-building hub, to be named the Asia Luxury Sail Boat Development District, would be one of the pivotal projects of Kaohsiung’s efforts to speed up its industrial transformation.
The sailboat-building district will be located on a 105 hectare tidal land area to which the city government will allocate NT$5 billion (US$160 million) for development, Chen said.
She added that the yacht-building district has also been included in a project approved by the Executive Yuan to develop a new “ocean-and-air” town in Kaohsiung.
Lu said that despite China’s beckoning, he and other Taiwanese yacht builders preferred to keep their roots in Kaohsiung because of the high-caliber workforce in Taiwan and a well-established research, production, marketing and delivery chain.
“The Asia Luxury Sail Boat Development District that will be developed in Kaohsiung could become the most complete and competitive yacht-building area in the world,” Lu said.
Taiwan’s yacht industry is a 40-year veteran in the yacht-building world, even though yachting is non-existent in Taiwan due to restrictive regulations.
Lu said Taiwan is the only country in which yacht builders build yachts on land, and the only yacht-building country in which yachting has until recently practically not been permitted.
It would not be impossible for Taiwan to turn into a yachting country if the government lifted a ban on the development of marinas and yachting, and added new statutes governing yachting, Lu said.
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