Minister Ho leads delegation to Germany, promotes foreign investment in Taiwan

December 24, 2004

After completing a trip to the U.S. on Dec. 11, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh led a delegation to Germany on a nine-day tour to promote investment in Taiwan. Minister Ho visited a large number of major German companies, inviting them to invest in Taiwan and presenting Taiwan as a prospective technical partner.

The delegation attended an investment recruitment conference in Berlin on Dec. 16, where participants mainly discussed biotechnology, optoelectronics and semiconductors, green energy and information technology. The conference attracted over 270 representatives from German companies. The German Ministry of Economics also arranged for several vice ministers to address the conference, while high-level representatives from Siemens and Infineon Technologies shared their experience on their Taiwan operations, affirming Taiwan's top-quality investment environment. The Siemens and Infineon representatives also called for more German companies to invest in Taiwan or work with Taiwan companies to develop Asian-Pacific market.

The Taiwan delegation's visit to Germany differed from past visits – this time the delegation specifically targeted Germany's precision machinery and biotechnology industries in a bid to further develop "focus" industry clusters in Taiwan under the government's Two Trillion Twin Stars Plan.

The delegation's investment recruitment visit brought considerable results: Siemens and Infineon both announced their intent to further develop their operations in Taiwan; Leybold, AFC, Merck, Dr. Willmar Schwabe, Festo, Coatema have plans to establish R&D centers; AFC and its partners (Betz, HPI, Streicher) and Coatema are planning to open factories in Taiwan; Trumpf plans to establish an Asia-Pacific Technical Personnel Training Center; and Bosch will be increasing its purchase of Taiwanese IT and optoelectronics products while further studying the possibility of investing in Taiwan.

Minister Ho and the delegation received a high degree of attention and courteous treatment from the German government, meeting with many ministerial-level officials. German businesses also enthusiastically welcomed the delegation, sending high-level management to personally receive the delegation, and pledging to initiate investment and cooperative ties with Taiwan.

(Ministry of Economic Affairs News Release)

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