Taiwan will open door wider for Chinese investment: minister

Taiwan lifted a decades-old ban on Chinese investment last June, and the policy has attracted NT$2.2 billion (US$68.75 million) in Chinese capital as of the end of February.

Responding to criticism by Kuomintang Legislator Ting Shou-chung that the government has been slow to draw Chinese investment, Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang said the first phase of investment liberalization that began June 30, 2009 was experimental in nature.

"We are reviewing the results of our initial market-opening measures and will continue to open our door wider to prospective Chinese investors, " Shih said at a hearing of the legislature's Economics Committee.

In the first stage, Taiwan opened one-third of its manufacturing industries as well as selected service industries to Chinese investors, including textile and computer services.

Shih said the MOEA's Industrial Development Bureau is studying which manufacturing sectors should be opened to Chinese investment in the second stage.

"We are also consulting relevant government agencies about further liberalization of Chinese investment in our service sector, " Shih told lawmakers.

Asked whether the second stage of liberalization would start in three months, Shih said it remains uncertain as public agencies are still assessing the issue.

"We'll have a clearer goal for a further market opening after a thorough review of the outcome of the first phase of liberalization," Shih said.

In addition to courting Chinese investment, Shih said the ministry will also step up efforts to woo more China-based Taiwanese enterprises to return home to invest, with the target set at NT$38 billion (US$1.19 billion).

On lawmakers' complaints about imbalances in cross-strait investment, Shih said that as most Taiwanese companies still rely on exporting their capital abroad to develop the Chinese market, it was only natural that Taiwan's investment in China outstrips Chinese investment in Taiwan.

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