March 16, 2005
Taichung Harbor Bureau reports an enthusiastic response to its first business promotion meeting for Taichung Harbor Free Trade Zone, held in late February. Among the companies signing letters of intent to set up in the FTZ, the nation's third so far, were Taichung Petroleum Inc., China Container Terminal Corp., Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co. and foods maker Vedan Enterprise Corp.
Following Council of Economic Planning and Development approval in January, the Executive Yuan granted final approval for the establishment of Taichung Harbor Free Trade Zone in early February. It also named the Taichung Harbor Bureau as the FTZ's competent authority.
The first phase of infrastructure construction in the zone is expected to be completed in October and operations are scheduled to commence before the end of the year.
In its initial proposal to the CEPD in August, THB projected that the establishment of Taichung Harbor FTZ would attract investments exceeding
NTD 300 billion, create over 1,000 jobs and generate an annual production value of
NTD 1.8 billion.
THB is promoting its FTZ as an ideal location for such operations as warehousing, assembly, processing, global distribution centers, container operations and other value-added operations, and is primarily targeting Taiwanese enterprises in China, petrochemical companies, import-export and distribution enterprises, transshipment companies and harbor services enterprises as potential residents.
For those companies that do establish operations in Taiwan's free trade zones, the government offers relaxed customs regulations and special tax breaks on processing and manufacturing.
Taichung Harbor FTZ covers a total area of 536 hectares, making it more spacious than Taiwan's two other FTZs in Keelung and Kaohsiung. Taichung Harbor itself provides a total of 960 hectares in water area and 2,800 hectares in land area.
Among the other advantages of Taichung Harbor FTZ are its proximity to Changhua Coastal (Changpin) Industrial Park in Changhua County and Taichung Export Processing Zone, Chungkang Export Processing Zone, Central Taiwan Science Park and Chingchuankang International Airport in Taichung. It is also within 54 hours by ship from six major Asia Pacific ports.
The CEPD reports that interest has been expressed in opening FTZs in Taoyuan County, Tainan County and Tainan City.
(United Daily News, Taiwan News)
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