A Taiwan-Thailand bilateral investment agreement (BIA) inked last month is expected to take effect later this year, following a review by the Executive Yuan (EY) and subsequent ratification by the Legislative Yuan, Executive Yuan officials said yesterday.
The ratification would mark Thailand as the fifth country to have signed a BIA with Taiwan since 2016, after the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, they added.
Taiwan and Thailand have an existing BIA signed and promulgated in 1996, but the 28-year-old organ is insufficient for the diversity of modern investment and cannot keep up with international investment regulations, the Office of Trade Negotiations said.
Photo: AFP
The new BIA would make information more transparent, ensure a one-stop service, pledge government assistance in resolving investment disputes, establish joint investment committees, implement measures to safeguard Taiwanese businesspeople’s investments in third-party countries, attempt to balance the rights of investors and the host country, and create a set of investor-state dispute settlement rules, the office said.
The value of Taiwan-Thailand bilateral trade has increased from US$9.30 billion in 2016 to US$16.24 billion last year, it said, citing customs and investment data.
In the same time range, bilateral investment has grown 119.8 percent, from US$3.18 billion to US$69.9 billion, making Thailand Taiwan’s principal trading partner among ASEAN members.
Thai imports from Taiwan consist mainly of electronic equipment, machinery and other components, and are the top imports of Thailand, the office said.
Taiwan is Thailand’s second-largest importer of data processing machines, it added.
Delta Electronics Public Co, Kinpo Group subsidiary Cal-Comp Electronics, JPP Holding Co subsidiary Jinpao Precision Industry Co, UniPresident Group, Chunghwa Telecom and others have been cultivating business opportunities in Thailand, while CTBC Financial Holding has become the largest shareholder of Thailand’s LH Financial Group and has 72 branches in Thailand, the office said.
Large-scale investments in Thailand include investments in the printed circuit board industry, electronic components, automotive components, artificial intelligence and server-related opportunities, it said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS