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.