Top trade officials from Mongolia and Taiwan held a forum yesterday in an attempt to strengthen economic ties between the two countries and attract Taiwanese investors the massive and unexploited Mongolian market.
"Many Taiwanese businesspeople are not familiar with Mongolia, but I assured them that they will find the nation a market full of potential if they would only visit it," said Huang Hua (
Taiwan currently has no diplomatic ties with Mongolia. The two countries set up representative offices in each other's capitals last September.
Mongolia, which seperates China and Russia with its vast 1.564 million km2 territory and a sparse 2.5 million population, depends on its economic lifelines of mining and the oil industry, which account for 65.5 percent of the country's exports. Wool is another important Mongolian export, as the nation is the second-largest supplier of cashmere in the world.
Mongolia began its transformation from a planned economy to a market economy in 1990, and the Mongolian government started reforming its economy by privatizing a large number of state-run companies and ushering in foreign investments in 1996.
According to Mongolia's Foreign Investment and Trade Agency, approximately 2,000 foreign companies in Mongolia made total investments of US$489 million, from 1990 to the end of 2001.
Last year, Taiwanese exports to Mongolia totaled US$4.94 million, and imports of Mongolian goods in Taiwan were US$92,341. There are 10 Taiwanese companies operating in Mongolia with investments of US$9 million. Half of the Taiwanese companies with a presence in Mongolia are investing in the textile industry.
Besides mining and textiles, tourism and consumer-goods manufacturing are rising stars in Mongolia.
"The most valuable resource that Mongolia has is its primitive environment, which could attract a huge number of nature lovers if adequate infrastructure is built," Huang said.
As for consumer-goods, Huang said due to unfavorable weather conditions and lack of a domestic manufacturing industry, Mongolia is highly dependent on imports of food and consumer goods from countries such as Russia, China and South Korea.
One businessman agreed with Huang, and said he had plans to tap into the food and manufacturing sectors in Mongolia.
"I think the foodstuff industry is a worthwhile investment due to the continual shortage of food -- especially during winter, which lasts seven months in the country," said Michael Yu (
Yu also said Mongolia could become a manufacturing center in central Asia by using cheap res-ources from China to produce high added-value products.
However, transportation is the main obstacle that may dampen the interest of Taiwanese investors, as Mongolia is remote from Taiwan and there are no direct flights between the two countries, said Liu Kun-chun (
"I admit that Mongolia has many advantages that are worthy of investment, but I won't comment on the inconvenient and costly transportation," said one official from the Importers and Exporters Association of Taipei (
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
RSS