With the aim of encouraging Taiwanese companies abroad to return and invest in Taiwan, the Executive Yuan promoted the three-year (2019-2021) “Action Plan for Welcoming Overseas Taiwanese Businesses to Return to Invest in Taiwan”. The Plan is especially designed for the needs of homecoming enterprises, and actively assists Taiwanese companies in their return to Taiwan by providing customized, unified services for land, water and electricity, manpower, taxation, and capital. In turn, the Plan drives the joint development of local industries and shapes a complete industrial upstream, midstream, and downstream supply chain, thereby cultivating industrial competitiveness and boosting economic growth for Taiwan. Since the Plan launched in 2019, the government has approved over NT$1 trillion (US$37.5 billion) of investments, attracted 254 reshoring enterprises to invest in Taiwan, created over 80,000 job opportunities, and spurred additional investments from supply-chain businesses in the three years of the Plan.
With persistent demand from overseas Taiwanese companies and ongoing transformation in the global economy and supply chains, the Executive Yuan has determined to extend the Plan to 2024, while additionally holding participating firms to standards that will advance the nation's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The focus of the extended Plan is as follows:
1.Customized, unified services
The InvesTaiwan Service Center of the Ministry of Economic Affairs provides unified services, offering dedicated customized services and reducing administrative procedures, while facilitating rapid returns. Contact information is as follows:
InvesTaiwan website: https://investtaiwan.nat.gov.tw/
Contact Us: (02)2311-2031
E-mail: [email protected]
2.Integrated implementation of the five main strategies
The Plan integrates resources across various ministries and implements five strategies, namely, fulfilling demand for land acquisition, providing ample human resources for industry, facilitating swift access to financing, ensuring stable supply of water and electricity, and offering dedicated tax services. These strategies aim to draw investment in Taiwan from outstanding Taiwanese companies, drive joint development of Taiwan's local industries, and transform Taiwan into a global hub on the industrial supply chain. Contents and contact information for each of the five strategies are as follows:
(1)Fulfilling demand for land acquisition
- Providing rent concessions: Providing rent-free benefits for the first two years after a company sets up operations in industrial parks developed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
- Enhancing land use efficiency: In accordance with the Program for Vertical Expansion of Industrial Parks, granting floor-area incentives to improve the efficiency of industrial land usage and speed up the renewal and vertical development of industrial zones.
- Expanding land for industrial use: Expansion of industrial land for science parks will be promoted, and the establishment of industrial parks by local governments is also encouraged with subsidies provided by the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
- Inventory of land supply: According to an inventory carried out by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and National Science and Technology Council, at present, around 471 hectares of industrial land can be supplied immediately; industrial land supply will be revised on a rolling basis by subsequent leases and sales.
(2)Providing ample human resources for industry
- Application principle: Priority will be given to promotion of domestic labor employment, with supplementation of foreign workers.
- Providing the Reemployment Subsidy, Employers’ Hiring Subsidy and Award, and Cross-area Employment Allowances to assist in the job-search of prospective employees and to meet the needs of enterprises for manpower.
- In accordance with the existing mechanism, enterprises will be assisted in conducting internal transfers or recruitment of professional talent from China.
- Foreign worker recruitment measures: When Taiwanese companies establish a new factory or expand an existing factory to a certain scale, if the investment amount exceeds a certain level and the number of employees recruited meets a certain threshold, they will be able to apply for advance-approval for the recruitment of foreign workers, which will be exempt from periodic inspections for one year. The allocation rate for foreign workers can be increased by a further 15%, however, the overall rate may not exceed 40%.
(3)Facilitating swift access to financing
- Allocated amount: NT$710 billion provided from the funds of banks.
- Lending scope: Construction of factories and related facilities, purchasing of equipment, and provision of medium-term operating capital.
- Lending rate: No higher than the listed postal savings fund two-year time-deposit interest rate plus 0.5% annual floating interest.
- Lending period: A maximum of 10 years (including a maximum three-year grace period.)
(4)Facilitating stable supply of water and electricity
- Dedicated staff will assist in accelerating application of water use plans to ensure that there are no uncertainties related to the water needed for industrial investment; management of various aspects of water resource infrastructure will be actively conducted simultaneously.
- Through unified service and project control, access to electricity will be accelerated; generator unit operation and maintenance will also be enhanced to maintain stable supply of electricity.
(5)Offering dedicated tax services
- The Ministry of Finance’s taxation bureaus in each area will establish a contact that will provide consultation on taxation regulations to returning Taiwanese companies.
- If the consultation cases involve fact-finding for individual cases, the National Taxation Bureau will establish a dedicated task force for consultation with the companies to effectively clear up doubts about tax regulations.