The combined revenue of the 1,000 biggest Taiwanese-owned companies in countries under the New Southbound Policy (NSP) surged 134.6 percent from NT$3.58 trillion (US$112 billion) in 2017 to NT$8.4 trillion in 2021, a report by credit information company CRIF (中華徵信所) said.
In a forum on Taiwanese investments in NSP countries organized by the magazine Business Today on Tuesday, CRIF editor-in-chief Liu Jen (劉任) said that Taiwanese firms investing in these countries were making significantly more revenue than five years ago.
During that same period, the top 1,000 Taiwanese companies in China saw their combined revenue decrease from NT$21.4 trillion to NT$17.4 trillion, Liu said.
Photo: Huang Pei-chun, Taipei Times
While Taiwanese companies in China still earned a lot more in absolute terms than those in Southeast Asian countries, the rate of growth has shifted, he said.
“The revenue of the top 1,000 Taiwanese companies in NSP countries was only 17 percent of that of the companies investing in China [in 2017], but by 2021 it had grown to about 48 percent,” Liu said.
The net income growth of the top 1,000 Taiwanese companies in NSP countries has been even more striking, jumping 418 percent from NT$109.4 billion in 2017 to NT$567.1 billion in 2021, he said.
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺), who were invited to the forum, backed up the CRIF report with government figures.
“The investments approved for the 18 countries under the NSP were US$2.8 billion in 2019, which increased to US$5.3 billion in 2022, growing by 90 percent,” Chuang said, adding that the Ministry of Finance has been helping Taiwanese businesses in these countries in the areas of taxation and finance.
Taiwan has taxation agreements with eight NSP nations: Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, she said.
Meanwhile, state-owned banks have established 78 service locations in NSP countries, offering NT$767.4 billion in total loans to Taiwanese businesses in those countries last year, up from NT$636.5 billion in 2021, Chuang said.
“Also, in 2022, the trade volume between Taiwan and NSP countries reached US$180.3 billion, with Taiwanese exports to the countries hitting US$96.9 billion, both record highs,” she said.
Chen added that in 2016, total trade was less than US$100 billion.
The investments have facilitated the clustering of Taiwanese industries, which is helped by the “summit forums” the Taiwanese government holds for industries together with NSP countries, he said.
At these forums, Taiwanese companies can find business opportunities and receive government assistance, such as help with technical upgrades, he said.
“The PCB [printed circuit board] industry in Thailand, the electronics industry in northern Vietnam, the IC packaging and testing industry in Malaysia and the new energy industry in Indonesia, for example, have all seen clusters of Taiwanese businesses develop,” Chen said.
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