Taiwan major investor

Taiwan major investor

TAIPEI (AFP): Taiwan's business people poured US$20.6 billion into overseas investments in 1986-92, making the island the world's 12th-largest investor, the Economic Daily News said yesterday.

Citing statistics compiled by the International Monetary Fund, the daily said that Taiwan has emerged as one of the world's leading capital suppliers with outbound investment totaling $20.6 billion in the seven-year period.

The report added that Southeast Asian countries and China were the favorite destinations for Taiwanese investment because of their cheaper labor and less-expensive raw materials.

It said that overseas investment boomed followed the Taiwanese authorities' relaxation of controls over foreign exchange in 1987, and that since then the island's net capital outflow exceeded $40 billion as of June 1994.

The cash-rich island's foreign-exchange reserves posted an all-time high of $92.28 billion at the end of October, the second highest after Japan.