TAIPEI - The
opening of direct flights between Taiwan and China is
essential if Taiwan is to keep its foreign
investors on the island, Christine Malpricht,
Director of the German Trade Office in Taipei,
said January 11.
"Taiwan could be isolated
by the international community if it doesn't soon
open direct links with China, and foreign
companies might leave as Chinese visa application
procedures are so long, "
Malpricht said. Malpricht, who
has been in Taiwan for more than five years, was
speaking in an exclusive interview with the
Central News Agency at her office January 11.
The German Trade Office in Taipei is
charged with bilaterally introducing Taiwan and
Germany's markets to each other. Taiwan imports
electronic integrated circuit, cars, machinery,
measuring instruments and medical equipment from
Germany, which buys flat panels, IT products,
machinery, furniture, clothes and measuring
instruments, among other products, from Taiwan.
According to Malpricht, some foreign
companies have already left Taiwan for Hong Kong for more direct
access to their operations in China. "However,
Taiwan still has a good chance to become a
logistic and finance hub in the East Asian region.
And above all, its technology and research and
development capabilities are quite good and it is
still the leader in lots of fields," she said.
Malpricht said that Taiwan had a number of
advantages compared with China that made
foreigners willing to be based here, such as
democracy, press freedom, stable laws, a high
standard of living, good infrastructure and
qualified professionals.
Commenting on
whether the government should open direct flights
to China, Professor Lai I-chung of the Taiwan
Thinktank said that the expectations of foreign
investors here are not the same as those of
Taiwanese businesspeople in China. "Taiwanese
businesspeople expect that there could be direct
freight flights across the Strait, while foreign
investors favor passenger flights," Lai said.
"It is not that the government is against
opening direct flights, but there is too much
uncertainty on the other side of the Taiwan
Strait, so that whatever representatives they
might send for the negotiations may lack
authority, and be unable to really represent their
decisionmakers' ideas," Lai added. "Besides that,
Taiwan's government has been lax in taking care of
its own businesspeople's interests, not to mention
those of foreign investors," Lai said.
