BANGKOK/TAIPEI – Just outside the Bangpoo Industrial Estate near the Thai capital of Bangkok, more than 1,000 Taiwanese gathered in February for a Lunar New Year feast for the Year of the Dragon.
But it is not just in the “Land of Smiles”. Countries across South-east Asia have seen a surge in investment from Taiwan in recent years as uncertainties over the United States-China trade war, increased labour costs in China, and frosty cross-strait relations have pushed Taiwanese companies to continue diversifying away from China.
At Thailand’s Bangpoo Industrial Estate, a 10-minute drive from the association, is Taiwanese automotive electronics solutions company E-lead Electronic, whose clients include Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Chrysler. E-lead’s first Thai factory, which was established in 2006, overtook its Chinese counterpart in 2023 to become the firm’s largest production base.
Mr Chen said: “We’ve had a presence in Thailand for years, so we could respond to our global customers’ changing needs very quickly. It made sense for us to expand our operations here. As a business, we always have to follow the customer.”While E-lead has had a presence in Thailand for 18 years, a host of other Taiwanese tech and electronics firms have established operations in and around Bangkok more recently.
In 1994, then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui’s introduction of the Go South policy helped bring more businesses to South-east Asia. That year, Taiwanese foreign direct investment into Asean countries more than doubled to US$4.98 billion, from US$1.76 billion the year before. But South-east Asia would come into focus once more in 2016 after then Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party introduced the New Southbound Policy.
“All of our major banks are in Singapore because it has a reputation for being reliable and politically stable,” she told The Straits Times. “Ultra-rich Taiwanese have also turned to Singapore to open family offices.”The Republic’s excellent infrastructure and competitive workforce also make it attractive for semiconductor manufacturing, Ms Hsu added.
“Singapore is UMC’s speciality technology hub, spearheading R&D for various advanced speciality process technologies. UMC’s growth strategy focuses on markets served by speciality technologies, making Singapore a very important hub for the company,” said a company spokesperson.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)
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