China Business

May 25, 2006

Taiwan lawmakers call Vietnam 'investor heaven'

TAIPEI - Taiwan legislators of all stripes who visited Vietnam last week for a Taiwan-Vietnam economic and trade forum recommended Vietnam as an "investor heaven" May 22, saying that the Indochinese country is a good choice for Taiwan investors beyond China.

All the members of the Legislative Yuan Finance Committee, who returned from the Vietnam forum over the weekend, said at a

press conference that Taiwan investors and the government should not ignore Vietnam as a suitable investment location.

Legislator Chuang Shuo-han of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Taiwan investors as a whole were one of the earliest groups of foreign investors to make inroads into Vietnam and that Taiwan is currently Vietnam's largest source of foreign capital.

Chuang said Taiwan businessmen operating in Vietnam have been accorded receptions "befitting ... their status [as guests] from a sovereign state." The fact that Vu Tien Loc, president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also doubles as director of Taiwan affairs under Vietnam's Prime Minister's Office, indicates the importance that the Vietnamese government has attached to relations with Taiwan, Chuang added.

Vietnam was the only nation in the world to have defeated France, China and the United States in recent decades, said DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng. With their unique and highly intelligent characteristics, the Vietnamese people know how to deal with superpowers and even though they are communists, they are people with integrity who do not renege on their words, according to Cheng.

Opposition People First Party Legislator Liu Yi-ju said that although Vietnam's bourse carries only 36 listed companies currently, the Vietnamese government welcomes foreign investment unconditionally to its stock market. One of the incentives that Vietnam offers to foreign funds is that foreign investors who invest in the Vietnamese stock market are allowed to remit their gains from the Vietnamese bourse back to their home countries the day after the transaction, Liu said. Taiwan has a lot of catching up to do with Vietnam in this regard, he added.

Liu said that Vietnam, which is expected to be admitted into the World Trade Organization by the end of this year, is a better place for investment for Taiwan businesses than China on the grounds that Taiwan and Vietnam have already forged an investment guarantee agreement aimed at protecting the interest of Taiwan investors.

(Asia Pulse/CNA)

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