In this week’s episode of Looking South, Eric Gau discusses the Taiwan-ASEAN and India Strategic Investment Partnership Forum with Department of Investment Services Director-general Emile MP Chang.
Transcript:
Eric Gau: Hello and welcome to another episode of Looking South, exclusively on ICRT. I’m your host, Eric Gau, and today we are discussing investment forums held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs with Department of Investment Services Director-general, Emile MP Chang. Mr. Chang, welcome to the program.
Emile MP Chang: Good morning Eric, good morning everyone.
Eric: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is going to be holding the “Taiwan-ASEAN and India Strategic Investment Partnership Forum” next week, on July 17th and the 18th. Could you tell us why the Ministry has organized this Forum, and what its purpose is?
Emile: Since September 2016, we have promoted the New Southbound Policy, that has four main aspects: economic cooperation, talent exchange, resource sharing and regional links. We continue to promote many programs in areas such as investment, trade, and industrial cooperation. Since the ASEAN countries have 650 million people, just second to China and India, the ASEAN countries also have total GDP of US$2.5 trillion, making it the world’s sixth-largest economy.
Eric: You mentioned that this forum has been held annually since 2016. Can you tell us what the two previous forums accomplished, and how this year’s forum is different from the ones that came before it?
Emile: In the 2016 forum, we invited the chief operating officer of the economic research institute for ASEAN and East Asia to attend, as well as investment officials from several ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. The Forum included many presentations and discussions, and there are more than 600 people who attended this forum in 2016, it was very successful. In the 2017 forum, we saw even greater participation, including more people from ASEAN countries, and also from the other special countries, like people from Laos. In the 2018 Forum, the key feature of this year is that we have included another country, India. India is attending this forum for the first time, so this year has that special aspect. Since India has the world’s second-largest population at 1.3 billion people, we hope through this direct introduction exchange with India we can build up a close link with India.
Eric: Mr. Chang, what is the current situation regarding bilateral investments between Taiwan and the New Southbound Policy target countries? And aside from this annual investment forum, what other measures are in place to help enterprises invest there?
Emile: According to the data from the MOEA’s Investment Commission, in 2017, inbound FDI from these 18 New Southbound Policy countries has increased more than 15% over the previous year. And also the southbound investment from Taiwanese companies to these countries has increased more than 54% from the previous year. We have continued to promote a variety of different measures, such as investment, trade, and industrial cooperation, to help enterprises to cooperate with those enterprises in these countries. In investment, we have built a Taiwan Desk in six countries, like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, and India. We provide many Taiwanese businessmen with professional consultations to facilitate their investment projects. In terms of industrial cooperation, we have established an Asia-Pacific industrial supply chain partnership, and this year we specially selected Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and India to join the partnership. On the trade side, the Bureau of Foreign Trade has set up Taiwanese Excellence pavilions at many important exhibitions in ASEAN countries.
Eric: And finally, before we go, what advice or opinions do you have for companies that are looking to enter the ASEAN or Indian markets?
Emile: Since the ASEAN and Indian markets have an average GDP growth of more than 5%, especially India, where it might achieve more than 7%, so I think it is an emerging market for Taiwanese companies. So we advise our enterprises to seek this market, and we do everything we can to help them. In addition, to get this opportunity, we also want to remind our enterprises that they have to consider if there is any risk or any situation they have to consider. But we are going to provide some measures to help them.
Eric: Could you give us any specific examples of the measures you mentioned earlier?
Emile: We encourage everyone to take part in the Taiwan, ASEAN and India Strategic Partnership Forum, held in Taipei on July 17th and in Taichung on July 18th. In this event, we will help every participant with very good opportunities to learn and make new contacts with people in these markets.
Eric: We’ve been speaking with Emile Chang, the director-general of the MOEA’s Investment Services Department. Mr. Chang, thank you again for taking the time to speak with us.
Emile: Thank you Eric, thank you everyone.
Eric: That’s it for today’s episode of Looking South. Tune in again next Monday for another look at the New Southbound Policy here on ICRT. For this and past episodes of the program, you can go to the ICRT Web page and find the audio under the Podcast section. I’m Eric Gau, thanks for listening.