Taiwan, Singapore join forces for investments
Taiwan, Singapore join forces for investments
TAIPEI (Reuter): Taiwan and Singapore have agreed to a joint investment strategy for third countries, a Taiwan spokesman said.
"We agreed that we will jointly develop industrial zones in Paraguay, Uruguay, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines," he said Wednesday.
"We will also jointly develop markets in India and Burma, taking advantage of Singapore's experience there," the spokesman quoted Taiwan Economic Minister Chiang Ping-kun as saying.
The spokesman said the agreement was made at a meeting in Taipei between Chiang and Singapore Minister of Trade and Industry Yeo Cheow Tong, who also discussed trade, shipping, banking, investments, technology and tourism issues.
A joint team of officials would be set up to plan the future cooperation, but no joint projects or details were decided on at the meeting, the spokesman said by telephone.
Taiwan businessmen have in recent years poured millions of dollars into Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, in an attempt to weaken increasing economic dependency on China.
China and Taiwan have been rivals since Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party lost a civil war in China in 1949 and fled to Taiwan.
Yeo's visit risks incurring protests from Beijing because Singapore has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but does have official ties with China.
To avoid such sensitivities, Taiwan kept a low profile over Wednesday's meeting and the spokesman declined to say whether Yeo would meet President Lee Teng-hui or other Taiwan officials.
"He is visiting in a private capacity. It's inappropriate to say who he is going to meet," he said.
The spokesman denied newspaper reports that Taiwan planned to ask its tens of thousands of businessmen registered in Hong Kong to register in Singapore as the 1997 handover of the British colony to Chinese rule approaches.
Taiwan bans direct contact with China and all legal trade with and investment in China goes through a third region, mostly Hong Kong.
With Hong Kong reverting to Chinese rule, Taiwan may look for a new channel for its commercial contacts with China.
"We can tell businessmen that Singapore is another channel for investment in mainland China, but we have no right to tell them what to do," the spokesman said.
He said the issue of Singapore having higher taxes than Hong Kong was discussed at Wednesday's meeting.
Taiwan investments in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines have totaled US$21 billion since 1949.