The Executive Yuan yesterday approved an extension of the Invest Taiwan program to 2027, while boosting the loan limit to NT$720 billion (US$24.98 billion) from NT$360 billion, expecting to attract NT$1.2 trillion in new investments and 80,000 more employment opportunities.
Launched in 2019 amid a US-China trade dispute, the program has attracted more than NT$2.5 trillion in investment from more than 1,600 companies and created more than 160,000 employment opportunities, Department of Investment Promotion Director-General Emile Chang (張銘斌) said at a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The program would focus on upgrading the nation’s “five trusted industries,” as well as the service industry, especially logistics and retail, the healthcare industry, the nation’s “six core strategic industries” and the “five plus two” innovative industries, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
It would also aim to introduce artificial intelligence and smart technologies to companies, he added.
The increased loan limit would be allocated equally to the program’s three schemes: overseas Taiwanese businesses, corporations based in Taiwan, and local small or medium-sized companies, Chang said.
A tiered subsidy mechanism would be adopted to determine the bank fees for large corporations, which would be 0.7 percent of the loan amount if it is less than NT$2 billion, he said.
The rate would be 0.5 percent for loans of NT$2 billion to NT$10 billion and 0.3 percent for those that exceed NT$10 billion, he said.
The bank fees levied on small or medium-sized enterprises would be raised to 1 percent from 0.7 percent at a payment term of three years, he said.
The fees would be reimbursed with the National Development Fund and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund, Chang said.
Mid-level skilled foreign workers would also be included in the extended program to encourage companies to raise domestic workers’ salaries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Companies offering insured monthly salaries of at least NT$36,300 to domestic employees can hire 10 percent more migrant workers, it said.
If the company offers domestic employees monthly wages of at least NT$38,200, the upper limit of the migrant worker proportion can be raised to 45 percent from 40 percent, it added.
As of the end of last month, 335 companies’ applications to the program have been reviewed and approved, Workforce Development Agency division head Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said.
The Ministry of Labor helped the companies fulfill a workforce gap of 4,900 local workers, while allowing the employment of 5,700 migrant workers, he said, adding that about 1,700 migrant workers were employed under the program as of yesterday.
The ministry would continue to assist local and foreign businesses that set up plants in Taiwan to meet their labor needs, Su said.
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