The nation welcomes reshoring of Taiwanese manufacturers driven out of China by fears of economic coercion, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told reporters at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Wang’s remark came after China earlier this week fined Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) about NT$2 billion (US$71.94 million), accusing its subsidiaries of contravening environmental protection, land use, employee health, safety, tax and product quality regulations.
The ministry is in talks with the National Development Council (NDC) over whether the government would extend the three-year “Invest in Taiwan” initiative that started in 2019, Wang said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The initiative provides reshoring businesses with favorable loan terms as well as assistance to secure factory sites and skilled labor. It is comprised of three programs that target reshoring businesses, companies aiming to deepen their roots in Taiwan, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Taiwanese businesses have told us that they would like the program to be extended,” Wang said.
“We will make a decision by the end of the year, as the government is keen to accommodate returning businesses,” she said.
NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on Wednesday said at the legislature that the initiative “would be extended as needed.”
Many Taiwanese businesses have already exited China amid a US-China trade dispute.
More recently, an unstable electricity supply in China has become another reason for companies to look elsewhere.
“Lately we have seen a spike in the number of businesses looking to take part in the initiative,” Wang said. “We encourage any company thinking about it to apply now.”
The latest data on the Invest in Taiwan Web site showed that 236 companies had been approved for the reshoring program, involving NT$910.7 billion in investments and creating 73,305 jobs.
The reshoring program is the biggest of the three parts of the initiative, the ministry said.
Overall, 1,061 companies have participated in the initiative, pledging investments totaling NT$1.14 trillion, the Web site showed.
To be approved for the initiative, companies must show that they are building highly automated, environmentally friendly and high-value-added businesses that create quality jobs in Taiwan, the ministry said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS