Two-way trade between Taiwan and Malaysia reached US$8.8 billion for the first eight months of the year, the government said.
The figure marked an increase of 18 percent over the same period a year earlier, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Malaysia said in a statement released yesterday.
The statement quoted remarks made by Representative to Malaysia Victor Tseng (曾慶源) in a speech at a party hosted by the office on Thursday evening to celebrate the Double Ten National Day.
Tseng said that Malaysia is also a main destination for Taiwanese investment capital, the statement said.
Taiwanese businesses began investing heavily in Malaysia beginning in 1987 in response to the government’s “Go South” policy of diversifying overseas investments, Tseng said.
Taiwan was the top source of foreign investment in Malaysia in 1990 and again in 1994 and had invested more than US$10 billion in the Southeast Asian country as of the end of last year, ranking Taiwan as Malaysia’s third-largest source of foreign investment.
The two-way trade of US$8.8 billion between the two countries also made Taiwan Malaysia’s seventh-largest trading partner, Tseng said.
At the same time, tourism between the two countries has increased, with more than 200,000 Taiwanese visiting Malaysia last year, Tseng said.
In the area of culture and education, exchanges have also been on the rise, Tseng said, noting that more than 30,000 Malaysian students were studying in Taiwan as of the end of last year.
He said that 19 Malaysian students have received scholarships this year to pursue undergraduate, master’s or doctoral degrees in Taiwan.
Tseng expressed the hope that under the new administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), bilateral relations between Taiwan and Malaysia would continue to get closer and stronger.
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