Looking to bring Taiwanese investment home, the MOEA continues to encourage 'Taishang' to return

February 18, 2008

Many Taishang – or Taiwanese businesses and companies operating abroad – are starting to take the government up on its offer of assistance in returning to Taiwan to invest, according to a recent report by Radio Taiwan International.

RTI's report featured a look at the efforts of the Department of Investment Services (DOIS) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). The DOIS recently formed the "Committee to Promote Investment in Taiwan by Overseas Taiwan Businesses" to oversee programs and services for Taishang considering a return to Taiwan. The programs provide Taishang with assistance in finding factory sites and upgrading their technology.

According to the report, the companies considering a return home come from diverse backgrounds. Recently the DOIS assisted a Taiwanese cosmetics company, originally based in Xiamen, in finding factory land at the Litse Industrial Park in eastern Taiwan. Meanwhile, a maker of diving suits has taken over an abandoned factory site to start production on a high-end product line.

The DOIS says technology assistance requests come from a diversity of manufacturers, such as makers of projection screens, metal furniture, LED, and thermoplastics. The committee has been working to put these companies in touch with the appropriate R&D organizations, and it hopes to provide the companies with technology transfers or the means to enter cooperative ventures to develop technology.

A total of 1,200 companies have engaged in the first two stages of the government's technology upgrade program, and the MOEA Industrial Development Bureau has announced that applications are open for the third stage.

But as it is not possible for all manufacturers to return to Taiwan, for reasons such as labor needs, the MOEA says it is willing to assist companies in operating overseas. One prominent measure is the government's Latin American Investment Project Office, which helps Taiwanese companies to establish operations in the countries of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central and South America and Africa.

(Radio Taiwan International)

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