Taiwanese investment in the Philippines this year more than doubled to top US$113 million, despite the global economic downturn, a report by the Taipei-based Manila Economic & Cultural Office (MECO) said.
Ancku Taichung Corp topped the list with a US$60 million electric arc furnace project being built in Batangas province, followed by a US$40 million investment plan by Teco Electric and Machinery Co (東元電機), which produces UMID cards — multi-purpose identification cards used in the Philippines’ social service system, MECO reported.
The two companies’ combined investment has far surpassed the figure of all investment from Taiwan for last year, which totaled US$45.7 million, MECO said.
Dita Angara-Mathay, MECO’s director of commercial affairs, said Ancku was planning to invest another US$100 million to build a blast furnace in the Philippines.
To attract greater investment from Taiwan, four delegations from the Philippines sponsored investment seminars and took part in trade fairs in Taiwan last year, in search of more trade and investment opportunities.
Mathay said Taiwanese investment would again double next year, with more than 50 percent going to the power sector.
Other Taiwanese firms that have invested in the Philippines this year include China Bond International Services for iron-ore mining in Aparri, worth US$5 million, as well as a US$2 million coal mining project by Shyi Chien Co in Sorsogon Province and a US$2 million plywood manufacturing plant by Tian Yuan Co in Butuan province.
Mathay said that a Taiwanese footwear group was scheduled to visit the Philippines in the first half of next year to study the feasibility of setting up an operation in Bataan province.
The Taiwanese footwear maker is considering Bataan because of the availability of large tracts of land and its proximity to the Subic and Clark free port zones, Mathay said, adding that there was still a big possibility that a footwear cluster would be set up by Taiwan businesspeople in the Philippines, depending on the willingness of the Philippine government to provide subsidies for land leases.
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