Taiwan’s southbound trade policy bears fruit
> Malaysia is its seventh largest trading partner as of October 2017
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy (NSP) which looks to grow trade as well as cultural ties with 18 nations has yielded concrete results, particularly with Malaysia, as it ranks as its seventh largest trading partner as of October 2017.
As of the first half of 2017, Taiwan ranked the ninth largest foreign investor in Malaysia.
The NSP seeks to enhance agricultural, business, cultural, education, tourism and trade ties between Taiwan and the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
In terms of education exchanges and cooperation, the number of Malaysian students studying in Taiwan ranks the highest, accounting 54% of the 10 Asean countries.
Meanwhile, the number of Malaysian tourists to Taiwan soared from 300,000 in 2011 to 470,000 in 2016, an increase of more than 50%. Taiwan also saw an improvement in Muslim tourists, ranking it the seventh best destination for Muslim travellers outside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
This year, Malaysia can look forward to economic and trade cooperation through events such as the Taiwan Image Exhibition and Industry Summit Forum, cross-border e-commerce and logistics cooperation, and halal industry cooperation.
In agriculture, Taiwan Fertiliser Company will be cooperating with large fertiliser distributors in Johor Baru. The collaboration will carry out fertiliser tests, promote fertiliser materials to increase sales volume, warehousing and related cold chain logistics.
Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations hope to review and update investment agreements which will be launched as soon as possible to further strengthen investment protection and promote bilateral investment. Taiwan hopes to continue to maintain Malaysia as each others’ top trading partners.
This year, Taiwan aims for bilateral trades to grow by double digits to maintain the growth path experienced in 2017. According to The New Southbound Policy: A Practical Approach Moving Full Steam Ahead, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan aims to allocate NT$7.19 billion (RM9.58 billion) to the implementation of the NSP this year.
The NSP, one of Taiwan government’s current priority, has been implemented for over a year. As of 2017, its total bilateral trade with the 18 partner countries has increased over 15% in comparison to 2016, while investment has increased to nearly 60%.
The 18 NSP partner countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The average GDP growth of these countries will increase to 5.4% this year, surpassing the 3.7% global average. The total trade grew over 2.33-fold in 17 years and its exports amounted to US$67.4 billion (RM263.1 billion) last year, which counts for 21.23% of Taiwan’s total export.
The partner countries are Taiwan’s top FDI destinations. About 10,000 Taiwanese companies have investments up to US$100 billion, creating up to four million job opportunities since 1952.