Once Taiwan’s second city and a major industrial hub, Kaohsiung has seen better days. Now it hopes to make a comeback by increasing investment in innovative and eco-friendly industries and boosting tourism. Nothing better symbolizes Kaohsiung’s economic ups and downs than its harbor. Thirty years ago, the southern city ranked among the world’s top-three busiest…
Several major global economic and political factors – namely, the U.S.-China trade dispute, Brexit, the protests in Hong Kong, as well as volatile oil and commodity prices – cast a shadow in the past year over global demand, trade, and industrial production. In Taiwan, the presidential election and cross-Strait relationship added uncertainty, potentially dampening the…
Offshore Wind Enters Commercial Stage President Tsai Ing-wen attended the inauguration of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, Formosa 1, on November 12 in a ceremony at the Longfeng Fishing Harbor in Miaoli. Located between two and six kilometers off the coast of Miaoli, the NT$18.7 billion (over US$623 million), 128-megawatt (MW) project is designed…
As the U.S.-China trade war continues, an air of uncertainty hangs over the global financial-services sector. The precariousness of the situation caused stock markets to perform very poorly last year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average’s annual return for 2018 was -5.63%, while the S&P 500 returned -6.24%, the first decline for the two indexes after…
Taiwan has an opportunity to attract more of these investments. Well over a century ago, the Rockefellers pioneered the idea of establishing a professionally staffed “family office” to manage private investments on behalf of members of the family. Since then, many ultra-wealthy family groups have followed suit. In recent years, according to an article in…
Each autumn, the Ministry of Economic Affairs holds a Taiwan Business Alliance Conference to promote Taiwan’s advantages as a location for foreign investment and to spotlight new business opportunities. This year’s program, held October 7 at the Taipei International Convention Center, included a new wrinkle. For the first time, the Ministry presented an “Economic Contribution…
There’s more to buoyant two-way FDI flows than generous taxation policies. Back in the 1600s, the Dutch were Taiwan’s first foreign investors, with their legendary Dutch East Indian Company setting up Fort Zeelandia in what is now the Anping district of Tainan. Fast-forwarding to the present, the Netherlands for the past three years has been…
AmCham Taipei’s Private Equity Committee suspended operations in late 2017 in frustration over the difficulty PE firms were facing in Taiwan in gaining approval for investment applications. In a number of cases over the previous six years, investment plans by PE companies had been either rejected outright or stalled so long that the prospective investor…
The Taoyuan Aerotropolis is the largest infrastructure project undertaken in Taiwan since the “Ten Major Infrastructure Projects” of the 1970s. With expected total investment of more than NT$500 billion (US$16 billion), it will create NT$2.3 trillion (about US$75 billion) in economic value, generate 20,000-30,000 job opportunities, and bring concrete benefits to both the aviation and…
The New Southbound Policy, launched in 2016 to enhance Taiwan’s contacts with countries in the surrounding region, has recently taken on added significance. The deterioration in U.S.-China economic relations has placed the spotlight on Southeast Asia and India as prime areas for future growth in trade and investment. Taiwan’s efforts to enhance relations with those…
