Foreign direct investment (FDI) approved by the government last month hit the highest level this year, but the figure for the first six months of this year was down nearly 27 percent from the same period last year, the Investment Commission said yesterday.
FDI is measured based on the investment activities of foreign firms, such as the incorporation of a subsidiary or joint venture, a cash injection into a local unit, or mergers or stake acquisitions of domestic firms. Taiwan’s FDI excludes investments from China.
The commission approved US$2.14 billion in FDI last month, down 52.3 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: CNA
However, last month’s figure surged 121.64 percent from the previous month, as Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) gained approval to inject NT$52 billion (US$1.67 million) in new capital into DBS Bank Taiwan (星展台灣) to fund its subsidiary’s acquisition of Citibank Taiwan Ltd’s (花旗台灣) consumer banking business, the commission said.
Total foreign direct investment in the first six months was US$6.42 billion, a 26.97 percent decrease from the same period last year, which the commission attributed to a relatively high comparison base last year, when Denmark’s Orsted Wind Power TW Holding A/S won approval to invest NT$87.19 billion in offshore wind projects in Taiwan and Costco Wholesale Australia Pty Ltd secured permission to invest US$1.05 billion in expanding its local wholesale and logistics businesses.
Meanwhile, investments from January to last month from countries that are part of the government’s New Southbound Policy increased 57.87 percent annually to US$2.24 billion, with the sources of investment coming mainly from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, the commission said
As for investments by Chinese firms, the commission approved US$16.65 million in the first six months, down 2.23 percent from a year earlier, it said.
In terms of outbound investment by Taiwanese individuals and businesses in nations excluding China, the commission said it approved US$8.97 billion in the first six months, an annual increase of 112.78 percent and boosted mainly by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) investment in its fab in Arizona, as well as Yageo Corp’s (國巨) equity investment in Hudson Holdco France under Schneider Electric SE.
Outbound investments to China increased 6.38 percent year-on-year to US$1.91 billion in the first six months, while those to New Southbound Policy countries grew 2.94 percent to US$2.13 billion, which the ministry attributed to local firms’ increasing investments in Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media