The results for Taiwan show a substantial impact on the German companies operating in Taiwan. 57.2% of them expect their revenues to decrease in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the negative impacts of COVID-19, the survey results reveal that the German companies remain committed to Taiwan. 85.7% stated that they are currently not intending to relocate their business to other locations and 57.1% of the companies intend to stick to their original investment plans.
“According to our survey, 90.5% of the participating companies currently consider travel restrictions as the greatest burden for their business operations and 70% of them perceive them as the major challenge for Taiwan’s economic recovery,” stated Axel Limberg, Chief Representative and Executive Director of the German Trade Office Taipei.
In the light of these figures, Mr. Limberg emphasized: “It was with great regret that we have learned about the decision of the European Union not to add Taiwan to the list of safe travel destinations. As our survey results show, lifting travel restrictions and slowly opening again is inevitable for a positive business development and Taiwan’s containment of the virus and its crisis management was exemplary, resulting in a very low number of infections. We are thus currently supporting Taiwan at German government authorities to be included on the list and to facilitate bilateral business efforts. As the EU has started to slowly reopen its borders for business people and travelers, we believe that if both sides are willing to approach one another and reach a compromise on mutually lifting its travel restrictions, the right and mutually accepted balance between the protection of public health, the economy and the freedom of travel can be found and both sides will benefit from it.”
Despite the current challenges, German companies look positively into the future. Only 19% expect the recovery of economy to take longer than one and a half years, while 81% predict a recovery to take place in 2021. Almost one fourth (23.8%) is even more optimistic and estimates the economy to improve in 2020.