Overseas Chinese and foreign investment totaled US$25.2 million in the first four months of this year, an increase of US$12.1 million over the corresponding period in 1969.
The investments covered 39 applications approved by the Overseas Chinese and Foreign Investment Commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Overseas Chinese investment in the period amounted to US$2,790,000, a hike of 20 per cent.
Foreign investment totaled US$22.4 million, up from the US$9,790,000 registered in the first four months of 1969.
Investment in the electronics industry accounted for 66 per cent of the total.
Life is better and longer, too
Per capita income rose from US$239 in 1968 to US$259 in 1969, an increase of 7.9 per cent, the Taiwan Provincial Department of Accounts and Statistics reported.
The report said that people are living longer as well as better than their predecessors.
The life expectancy of a child born in Taiwan today is about 25 years more than it was 34 years ago.
Life expectancy is 64.4 years for men and 69.1 years for women, compared with 40.1 years and 45.6 years in 1936.
School attendance jumped from 76.6 per cent in 1945 to 97.5 per cent in 1968. Students enrolled at colleges and universities totaled 161,337 in 1968 compared with 22,606 in 1956.
Unemployment had decreased to 1.9 per cent last year from the 4.4 per cent in 1964.
The statistics also revealed:
— The death rate declined from 9.4 per cent in 1953 to 5.4 per cent in 1968.
— Average annual spending rose from US$70 per person in 1951 to US$158 in 1969.
— The number of trucks rose from 14,519 in 1953 to 667,302 in 1969 and the number of automobiles and motorcycles from fewer than 5,000 to 567,302.
— One of 6 families owned a TV set in 1968 compared with 1 in 20 families in 1962.
— One in 10 families owned a refrigerator in 1968 compared with 1 in 22 families in 1966.
Fertilizer center opens in Taipei
The Food and Fertilizer Technology Center of the Asian and Pacific Council was inaugurated in Taipei April 24.
Chu Hai-fan, a Chinese fertilizer expert, was named director of the center.
President Chiang Kai-shek sent a message extending congratulations. Australian Ambassador Hugh A. Dunn presided at the ceremonies and Vice President and Prime Minister K. Yen was the speaker.
Guests included Dr. Wei Tao-ming, minister of foreign affairs; K. T. Li, minister of finance; T. H. Shen, chairman of the Joint Com mission on Rural Reconstruction; Walter H. Fei, vice chairman of the Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development; Dr. Bruce H. Billings, JCRR commissioner; and members of the diplomatic corps.
The center, proposed by the Republic of China, was approved by the fourth ministerial meeting of ASPAC in June of 1969.
The center will promote exchange of information on fertilizers and farming techniques among the nine ASPAC countries. Activities will include training courses, seminars, pilot demonstration projects and technical consultation.
Cooperative projects to raise food production will be recommended to member countries. Reports will be made on fertilizer supply and prospects. Personnel may be dispatched to member countries to give demonstrations.
Eventually the center may become an Asian and Pacific food and fertilizer bank.
US$335 million for petrochemical plants
The government is planning to invest NT$13.4 billion (US$335 million) in the petrochemical industry in the next four years.
The investment plan was worked out by the Chinese Petroleum Corporation and approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Projects include development of natural gas, expansion of refining capacity, establishment of an ethylene plant with annual output of 200,000 tons and building of a second naphtha cracking plant.
These increases are projected:
Natural gas—Output of 1,220 million cubic meters in 1973 for average annual growth of 9.5 per cent.
Liquid fuel—Annual production will reach 7,818,000 kiloliters in 1973, an increase of 15.6 per cent annum.
Petrochemical products—Output of 167,000 metric tons in 1973, including ethylene and benzol, representing annual growth rate of 43.9 per cent.
These projects will be undertaken:
— Drilling of five wells a year in the search for gas and oil.
— Construction of a refinery in northern Taiwan with daily output of 100,000 barrels.
— Construction of a distillate plant with daily capacity of 100,000 barrels.
— Construction of a fuel gas plant with daily capacity of 3 million cubic meters.
— Construction of a naphtha cracking plant with all annual output of 200,000 metric tons of ethylene.
Closer cooperation with Australia
The Republic of China and Australia will increase cooperation in trade, industry and technology.
This was agreed at the three-day Second Sino-Australian Trade and Economic Relations Conference at Canberra May 7.
The communique was signed by Y. S. Sun, Chinese economics minister, and Ian Sinclair, Australian minister for shipping and transport.
The statement said the delegations had examined a wide range of topics and discussed ways and means of increasing trade.
Taiwan exports to Australia increased from US$8.6 million in 1967-68 to US$11.8 million in 1968-69. Australian exports rose from US$20.4 million to US$26.3 million in the same period.
Trade volume is expected to reach US$70 million this year, an increase of more than 25 per cent.
The third conference will be held in Taipei next year.
Trade with Malaysia to be increased
Chinese and Malaysian traders have agreed to seek a larger volume of commerce.
A 36-meinber Malaysian mission headed by Dato Lee, a parliamentarian, met with a Chinese group led by Koo Chen-fu, president of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, at the Ambassador Hotel in Taipei May 4-6. These were decisions:
— Malaysia will purchase more textiles from Taiwan and this country will buy more rubber from Malaysia.
— Malaysia will shift its purchases of steel products from the Chinese Communists to Taiwan in exchange for ROC import of Malaysian iron ore.
— Taiwan will provide technical assistance in the food processing, glass, paper and plywood industries.
— Malaysia will import paper from Taiwan.
— The two countries will cooperate in building a fan belt and brakelining plant in Malaysia.
Container service to U.S. under way
The first Chinese container ship, the Geh Yung, left Keelung for the U.S. west coast recently.
The 10,500-ton vessel belongs to the Orient Overseas Container Line of the C.Y. Tung group, one of world's 10 largest privately owned shipping companies.
The Geh Yung was converted from bulk cargo service and will sail regularly between Hongkong and Long Beach, California, via Taiwan and Japan.
The ship can carry some 300 containers and makes 17 knots. Two more full container ships, the Oriental Zephyr and the Oriental Falcon, are slated for transpacific service.
OOCL intends to expand its container service to the U.S. east coast and Europe. It has ordered four full container ships in Europe for delivery in 1971 and 1972.
OOCL is the second shipping company to open Taiwan-U.S. container shipping service. Sea-Land was first.
The government attaches great importance to container shipping. Berths and terminals are being established.
Four permanent container wharfs are under construction at Kaohsiung in southwest Taiwan, one of the largest ports in the Far East. Berths are equipped with cranes and the marshalling and storage yard is one of the largest in the Far East.
Keelung in northern Taiwan is converting several conventional piers to container use. Handling stations are being built nearby.
OOCL foresees a good container potential for Kaohsiung because of its big backup area.
Taipei hotel space will be doubled
Taipei will have 82 hotels with 9,469 rooms by 1972. The present count is 64 hotels and 4,754 rooms.
Eighteen hotels have started expansion projects and five more are planning to follow suit.
The four biggest hotels have a total of only 1,000 rooms. This cuts down on Taipei's ability to handle large groups of tourists.
Small and medium-size hotels are not getting enough business and want to expand.
By 1972, at least nine hotels will have 300 or more rooms. They are the President (401), Imperial (310), Central (300), Grand (600), King's (512), Tunghai (405), Majestic (900), Ambassador and Mandarin.
A total of 913 rooms will be added this year and 1,422 rooms in 1971.
Six new hotels with 2,379 rooms will be completed in 1972.
The Mandarin Hotel, now tile largest in Taipei, is planning to add 1,000 rooms in two stages. A Sino-American Holiday Inn of 500 rooms is planned.
Textile industry fears U.S. quotas
Textile manufacturers have petitioned the Ministry of Economic Affairs to ask the U.S. government not to restrict the import of synthetic and woolen textiles.
The petition, presented by the Taiwan Woolen and Knitted Wear Association, said the textile industry could not survive restrictions under consideration by the U.S. Congress.
The association said textiles is the largest foreign exchange earner of the Republic of China and the United States is the biggest customer. However, Chinese textiles account for a very small percentage of total U.S. textile imports.
The petition said that if the United States does impose restrictions, the quota for Taiwan should be calculated on the basis of the actual annual exports to the United States plus a 50 per cent margin and an annual increase of 10 per cent.
The association said Japan and Korea are opposed to U.S. restrictions.
According to statistics of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Republic of China's exports of cotton woolen and man-made fiber products to the United States in the first quarter of this year totaled 91.3 million square yards, compared with 60.6 million square yards in the same period of 1969. Japan's exports in these categories in the same period totaled 281 million square yards. The Hongkong figure was 127 million square yards.
Export zones offer incentives
Nowhere is Taiwan's economic success more evident than in the export processing zones, which offer outstanding investment opportunities highlighted by inexpensive labor, low-cost utilities and harmonious labor-management relations.
Export zone enterprises are exempted from import duties on machinery and equipment, raw materials and semi-finished products. If these are purchased locally from suppliers outside the zone, the purchases are considered to be imports and tax rebates or exemptions may be received.
No commodity tax is collected on finished products, raw materials or semi-finished goods used by industries within the zone. The business tax is waived.
If the industry meets certain requirements, it may enjoy a five-year income tax holiday.
Overseas Chinese or foreign investors may repatriate their profit and interest on their investment starting with the first year of operation. Fifteen per cent of capital may be repatriated annually after the second year.
Power is inexpensive. The rate for low-voltage industrial power is US$0.00125 to US$0.00925 per kilowatt hour; that of high voltage power is between US$0.00757 and US$0.0085 per KWH.
The rate for industrial water is about a quarter of that in Hongkong: US$0.0686 per 1,000 U.S. gallon (pH value: 7.8-8.2).
More than 90 per cent of the Taiwan work force has schooling of at least nine years. Labor can be trained quickly, and economically.
Investors can lease land for US$0.02835 a square foot per month. Export zones have utilities, roads, postal and telegraph services, transportation and warehouses.
If an investor does not need a specially designed building, he may buy space in a standard factory building for 30 per cent down and the balance in quarterly installments over a period of 10 years. Interest is 10 per cent annually.
Application procedures have been reduced to the minimum. Applications are approved or disapproved within a month.
Foreign exchange controls are not oppressive. An importer not in an export processing zone must make a deposit equivalent to 50 per cent of the amount of exchange he is asking for. Only 20 per cent is required in a zone.
If the export is made from raw materials or semi-finished products bought with self-provided foreign exchange, the enterpriser may retain the amount of self-provided foreign exchange if the export is effected against a letter of credit. Processing charges for export goods made from raw materials imported with self-provided foreign exchange must be deposited in a government-designated bank.
Taiwan established its first export processing zone at Kaohsiung, 210 miles south of Taipei, in 1965. By the end of 1969, approved applications for investment totaled 161 with capital of US$36,441,179. One hundred and twenty-six factories are in operation. The principal products are electronics, knitwear, handicrafts, metal products, plastics, garments and leather goods.
Exports began in September of 1966. By 1969 the volume reached US$62 million.
At the end of 1969, employment stood at 27,881, of which 13.19 per cent was male and 86.81 per cent female. Foreign technical and management personnel totaled 236.
KEPZ is sold out but two more zones are under construction. The Nantze Export Processing Zone at Kaohsiung will open to investors in the summer of this year. The Taichung Export Processing Zone began to accept applications in January.
The Nantze zone occupies an area of 115.12 hectares (290 acres) and expects to accommodate 200 factories with investment of US$30 million. Employment should reach 40,600 and annual sales, US$120 million.
Factories of the following categories are qualified for admission: Precision machinery and instruments, electronic products, optical products, metal products, plastic products, machinery, furniture, handicrafts, electrical appliances and products, rubber products, chemical products, printing, confectionery, cosmetics, leather products, paper containers, toys, yachts, knitted and woven goods, and garments not made of cotton cloth.
To facilitate operations, the following organizations have branch offices to serve zones: customs, tax bureau, government banks, post office, Taiwan Power Company, telecommunications, water works, employment center and airlines.
The Taichung Export Processing Zone is located in Central Taiwan. It occupies an area of 23 hectares.
The zone is only 300 meters from the Tantze railway station. These are goals:
— 50 factories.
— 10,000 jobs.
— US$7.5 million in overseas investment.
— Exports of US$30 million annually.
— Employment of 100 foreign technicians.
Ten four-story standard factory buildings of reinforced concrete are under construction. Each floor will have area of 3,030 square meters. Space will be sold to investors on installment payments over a period of 10 years.
Investors may construct their own buildings. The government will provide long-term loans. Land rental is US$0.0567 per square meter monthly.
Tourism shows gain of nearly 35 per cent
A total of 43,987 tourists visited Taiwan in April, a hike of 34.4 per cent over the corresponding month of 1969, the Tourism Council of the Ministry of Communications said.
Foreign tourists totaled 39,122, representing a 32.6 per cent increase over the like month of 1969. Overseas Chinese totaled 4,865, an increase of 51.3 per cent.
Japanese topped the list with 12,729, a decrease of 4,000 compared with the previous month. Americans came second with 12,672, an increase of 4,000, followed by tourists from Australia and Southeast Asia.
The first four months of 1970 brought 147,180 visitors, an increase of 24.8 per cent. Foreigners totaled 130,864, a 24.3 per cent increase, and overseas Chinese 16,316, a 28.3 per cent hike.