Taiwan investment in SE Asia jumps by 680%

Taiwan investment in SE Asia jumps by 680%

TAIPEI (AFP): Taiwan investors have poured US$3.03 billion into southeast Asian countries in the first half of 1994, a huge 680-percent rise over one year ago, China Times Express said yesterday.

Citing statistics compiled by the Investment Commission, the paper said that investment in the region has totalled $21.8 billion since local businessmen rushed to operate from regional countries from 1980s.

Pressed by exorbitant land prices, an acute labor shortage, escalating wages and growing anti-pollution sentiment on the island, some local manufacturers have shifted their operations to southeast Asian countries.

The report attributed the investment boom in Southeast Asia to the government's efforts to promote its so-called "Southern Investment Policy Paper."

The policy encourages local citizens to invest the five member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Vietnam, with priority given to Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Indonesia topped other countries in the region as a Taiwanese investment haven, raking in $2.4 billion in the January-June period, a 100-fold increase over the same period last year, it added.

Taiwan investment in Malaysia totalled $329 million, a 456- percent surge, while Thailand-bound investment rocketed 10-fold, to reach $200 million, it said.