Taiwanese companies have been scaling back their investments in China so far this year to just 11 percent of the nation’s total outbound direct investment, the lowest share in decades and well below their heavy spending in the US and Germany, the Nikkei Asia reported yesterday.
During the first 11 months of this year, Taiwan’s approved outbound investment soared 87 percent annually to US$25.7 billion, while investment in China plummeted 34 percent year-on-year to US$2.96 billion, about 11 percent of the total, statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Wednesday last week showed.
China had been the biggest investment destination for Taiwanese companies, but things changed at the beginning of this year, the ministry said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
With China-bound investment in decline, China for the first time was replaced by France and dropped to the second-largest outbound investment destination in February.
The decline in China-bound investment extended to the first 11 months of this year.
The Nikkei Asia attributed the drop-off to China’s economic doldrums, as well as the influence of the long-standing and mounting tensions between the two sides.
Taiwanese companies are also finding it harder to conduct business in China amid trade friction between Washington and Beijing that has led to US duties on Chinese goods, the report said.
Taiwanese spending in China has plummeted from a peak of 84 percent in 2010, when Taiwan and China signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, but even from last year, when China still accounted for 34 percent of outbound investment, the report said.
This year’s total is expected to clock in at less than half of the 30-year low of 28 percent in 1999, it said.
Meanwhile, investment in Europe and the US has skyrocketed.
Taiwanese foreign direct investment in the US surged ninefold in the first 11 months of this year to US$9.64 billion, making up 37 percent of the total, the report said, citing the ministry’s statistics.
Spending in Germany alone soared past the China figure, ballooning 25-fold to US$3.9 billion, driven by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) investment in a new fab in Dresden, it said.
With China’s economy still stagnating and the Washington-Beijing technology dispute unresolved, Taiwan’s spending in China looks unlikely to bounce back any time soon, the report said.
“Taiwanese investment in China continuing to decline will be the main scenario as long as US-China tensions continue,” Sun Ming-te (孫明德) of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院) said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RELEASED: Ko emerged from a courthouse before about 700 supporters, describing his year in custody as a period of ‘suffering’ and vowed to ‘not surrender’ Former Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released on NT$70 million (US$2.29 million) bail yesterday, bringing an end to his year-long incommunicado detention as he awaits trial on corruption charges. Under the conditions set by the Taipei District Court on Friday, Ko must remain at a registered address, wear a GPS-enabled ankle monitor and is prohibited from leaving the country. He is also barred from contacting codefendants or witnesses. After Ko’s wife, Peggy Chen (陳佩琪), posted bail, Ko was transported from the Taipei Detention Center to the Taipei District Court at 12:20pm, where he was fitted with the tracking
RSS