Yageo Corp (國巨) yesterday announced that it has signed a deal to invest 205 million euros (US$224.9 million) in North Macedonia over the next 10 years.
The company, which supplies passive components, such as chip resistors, inductors, tantalum capacitors and multi-layer ceramic capacitors, said that it would build plants in the Technological Industrial Development Zones (TIDZs) in the capital, Skopje, and the city of Stip in the country’s east.
Yageo made the announcement after a company representative and Jovan Despotovski, general manager at the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones, signed an investment agreement at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店).
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
The two sides have been in talks over the past year, Despotovski said.
North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski attended the signing ceremony via videolink, the statement said.
“I would like to express my sincere welcome and respect to Yageo, a global high-tech company, to have such meaningful investment in North Macedonia. It’s [the investment] confirmation of the good economic policies that we are leading and the stable investment climate that we are creating in the country,” Kovacevski said.
Yageo said its investment is the biggest “greenfield investment” in the country since independence.
A greenfield investment means the company would build operations from the ground up, from searching for a plot to the construction of plants and other facilities, Yageo said.
The investment is expected to create more than 3,900 jobs in the Skopje and Stip TIDZs, it added.
Yageo subsidiary Kemet Corp operates two plants, and one research and development center in North Macedonia, mainly producing capacitors for electric vehicles, the company said.
“With a strategic geographical position, a stable monetary and favorable tax environment, and highly qualified workforce with competitive labor costs, North Macedonia is an ideal location for Yageo to expand its business in Europe,” Yageo chairman Pierre Chen (陳泰銘) said in the statement.
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