SOONER or later, executives of local governments may get the chance to visit Taiwan and meet investors interested to do business in the Philippines.

This is under a plan being hatched for the government as part of its efforts to recover from the pandemic.

Several mayors from the country’s cities and municipalities are already being eyed for the first batch of delegates for the Taiwan investment roadshow.

If the schedule is followed, the initial group of mayors could leave for Taiwan early next year.

Taiwan is a big source of foreign investments for the Philippines. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) knows this very well.

PEZA aims to attract more investments in high-technology industries from Taiwan following the country’s investment mission in the East Asian economy recently.

The Philippines could benefit from the technological advancement of Taiwan, whose economy is driven by a competitive manufacturing sector in the fields of electronics, machinery, petrochemicals, energy, and information and communications technology (ICT) products.

“With the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) investment and tax incentives in place, PEZA aims to target strategic and high-tech industries from Taiwan that will provide for ecozone product sophistication, export diversification, labor-intensive and high-skilled jobs, knowledge transfer, enhanced local supply chain, and creation of industry clusters,” PEZA officer-in-charge and Deputy Director General Tereso Panga said.

He said strengthening cooperation with Taiwan will benefit the Philippines, as the former is the seventh biggest economy in Asia and 20th largest purchasing power parity in the world.

There are 108 Taiwanes companies registered in PEZA as of July 2022 with total investments amounting to P32.87 billion.

These firms are engaged in manufacturing of electrical machinery and apparatus, apparel, fabricated metal products, radio, television, and communication equipment and apparatus as well as real estate activities.

Top investors from Taiwan include Sunon Properties (P4.5 billion), Tong Shing Electronics (P2.9 billion), Kinpo Electronics (P2.1 billion), and its affiliate company Acbel Polytech (P1.7 billion).

“In PEZA, the Taiwanese are the bigger investor than the mainland Chinese with their approved cumulative investments of PHP24.7 billion,” Panga said.

Taiwanese companies in the Philippines also contributed $535.53 million in exports and created 46,564 direct jobs.

He said by signing of the bilateral investment agreement and New Southbound Trade Treaty between Philippines and Taiwan, both parties are able to conduct investment and trade promotions that will help in attracting more investments from Taiwan and increase its share in economic zones in terms of investments and exports.

A Philippine delegation led by Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo is visiting Taiwan from Oct. 24 to 27 for a Philippine Investment Mission.

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