Government directs investment capitals to non-China markets

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 6. It reports that the Ministry of Economic Affairs recently unveiled a project to assist Taiwanese enterprises invest in markets excluding China, in line with the government's "proactive management, efficient liberalization" trade policy. A trade mission composed of about 100 Taiwanese entrepreneurs will visit India in May as the first step of the project.

So far, the ministry has come up with a list of countries as the primary markets for Taiwanese enterprises to explore their investment opportunities. These include Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Zech, Slovenia, Hungary, Russia, Brazil, Japan, the European Union, the United States and the 12 Latin American countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, India has as many as 300 million middle-class consumers and lower labor costs. Every year, the country offers 975,000 English-fluent university graduates of technology and engineering degrees.

Meanwhile, official statistics show that capital of Taiwan's investment in China soared to 67.24 percent of Taiwan's global investments in 2004, from 33.9 percent in 2000. This suggests that China still remains as the no. 1 target market of Taiwanese investments.