Part of the government’s national investment plan is to include a participation promotion division tasked with guiding industries in investing in strategic industries that provide safe and long-term options with decent returns, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
Cho made the comments during a meeting with World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce (WTCC) members at the Executive Yuan.
Taiwan has 176 chambers of commerce worldwide, which is a healthy number, Cho said, adding that President William Lai (賴清德) has often said that he hoped to make Taiwan an economic empire “on which the sun never sets,” with the assistance of the WTCC.
Photo: CNA
Taiwanese businesspeople can meet and speak with others through channels that are otherwise unavailable to the Taiwanese government, laying the groundwork for Taiwanese success, Cho said.
Cho said the government would work more closely with Taiwanese businesspeople to address challenges they might face due to international and political situations.
Commenting on the proposals approved by the Executive Yuan’s Economic Development Committee meeting on Thursday, Cho said the government must provide good investment channels and expedite investment legislation, as well as other incentives, to attract investments by Taiwanese businesspeople.
The government plans to create an Asian Asset Management Center with Taiwanese characteristics over the next six years to effectively use investment funds, while another proposal seeks to foster 200,000 people skilled in artificial intelligence (AI) and attract 120,000 foreign talent to the AI industry, Cho said.
Cho added that the committee’s consultants’ meeting, which is expected to be held next month, hopes to provide new policies for buildings and constructions.
He also urged Taiwanese businesspeople overseas to monitor potential opportunities for collaboration between Taiwan and their resident country.
Overseas Taiwanese businesspeople own an estimated NT$10 trillion (US$305 billion) in funds, WTCC president Lee Tien-chi (李天柒) said.
The problem is not funding, but that the majority of Taiwanese businesspeople made their names in traditional industries and lacked the knowledge of how to invest in high-tech industries, he said.
Lee urged the government to address such issues and resolve tax concerns, adding: “We all hope the government will lead us on the right path.”
Separately, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) wrote on Facebook about the ministry’s and foreign offices’ assistance and support after a recent meeting with the members of the WTCC.
Lin thanked WTCC members for being the face of Taiwan’s economic diplomacy and said their hard work contributed to the nation’s trade and financial accomplishments.
The ministry hopes to implement the president’s “the sun never sets” economic policy, and would continue to close the gap with like-minded countries through economic investments and by signing more bilateral investment agreements, Lin said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on