Terms offered by the Vietnamese government to compensate Taiwanese companies affected by last week’s anti-Chinese riots are below expectations, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said yesterday.
Duh said that Taiwan’s government will make strong demands for “substantial” compensation after the violent protests left 224 companies that had been invested in by Taiwanese businesspeople damaged.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has promised to take measures to compensate the affected companies, including directing insurance companies to compensate the losses, extending the maximum period for filing and paying taxes to two years, granting duty-free status to imported goods and value-added tax reductions or exemptions on raw materials, streamlining visa application procedures for foreign workers and work permits for foreign managers and offering unemployment benefits for workers unable to get their salaries during the rioting.
Duh yesterday said he was happy to see Vietnam willing to face up to the problems, but added that the terms failed to meet local firms’ demands for substantial compensation. He said that the businesses hope for tax deductions and exemptions for personal and corporate incomes.
They also want a regular system for central and local governments to work together on claims for damages, he said.
Duh also suggested that Vietnam’s national social security fund could come up with standards for affected workers to claim unemployment compensation.
Among the Taiwanese companies mistaken for Chinese firms during the rioting, 18 factories were set on fire, five of which were destroyed, according to data compiled by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs.
A delegation led by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) was scheduled to meet with high-ranking officials from Vietnam’s central government and Vietnam-based Taiwanese businesspeople later yesterday.
Shen and other officials visited the provincial governments of Dong Nai and Binh Duong, where the riots were centered, after arriving in the country earlier this week.
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