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SZ to keep Taiwan investors
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Song Yingwen
SZ saw an astonishing 460 per cent increase in investment from Taiwanese enterprises in 2000, bringing the total investment from Taiwanese in the city to over US$3.87 billion, or one-seventh of the overall Taiwanese investments on the Chinese mainland, according to newly-released statistics from the SZ Taiwan Affair Office (STAO).
Convenient transportation, preferential policies, abundant talent pool — especially in the IT industry — and a favourable living environment are the attractions to Taiwanese investors, according to Gan Jingfeng, chief director of the economic department of the STAO.
“Though we are still behind Dongguan, a neighbouring city in Guangdong Province, in the total amount of Taiwanese investment, we had more big high-tech companies," Gan said, summing up the year's Taiwanese investment.
Statistics show that by the end of last year, about 40 Taiwanese firms with an investment of more than US$10 million each have settled in in SZ. And 32 out of the 56 Taiwanese enterprises that engaged in high-tech products and IT information were set up last year.
The greatest competition on the mainland is said to be coming from Jiangsu, a province in East China which is catching up with the southern cities in high-tech industry by following the patterns of setting up more high-tech parks and creating favourable policies.
“As the communication between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland improve after the practice of direct trade, transportation and postal service between Xiamen and Kinmen Island, the investment conditions in Jiangsu Province will be greatly improved as the transportation time and costs will be reduced. If we don't work hard to provide better service for investors and creating more attractive policies, we will fall behind again," Gan states.
He predicted a continuous growth in Taiwanese investment in the coming year but the increase would then slow down.
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