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.
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
RSS