Taipei---The 4th EU Investment Forum was held on 12th October at the Taipei International Convention Center. The forum attracted over 300 participants, including ten speakers from Europe and Taiwan.
“Over the last four years, Taiwan has invested in the EU almost as much as over the past forty years. The recipe for this success was trust and common values. Europe has highly innovative industries and is open to integrate Taiwanese companies into our supply chain. The European Chips Act will create new opportunities for Taiwanese investors, said Mr Filip Grzegorzewski, Head of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO).
Mr Grzegorzewski thanked President Tsai Ing-wen for her continuous support to the EU Investment Forum and encouragement to Taiwanese companies to invest in Europe. He emphasized that European and Taiwanese enterprises have long been intertwined, establishing close cooperative and trustful relationships. An example of this is the collaboration between ASML and TSMC. He stated, "I believe that TSMC's investment in Dresden, Germany, is just the beginning.”
Other participants were Mr Joseph Wu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Mei-hua Wang, Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr Kung Ming-hsin, Chairman of the National Development Council, and Mr Giuseppe Izzo, Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan.
Mr Thomas Skordas, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content, and Technology, highlighted in his keynote speech that the new European Chips Act will provide strong support for building a robust semiconductor supply chain and next-generation quantum computers in Europe. The EU will continue to invest in innovative research, actively nurture semiconductor talent, and seek collaboration with like-minded partners internationally. He specifically mentioned TSMC, the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing company in the world, announcing its collaboration with NXP and Bosch in Germany as a paradigm of collaboration between Taiwan and Europe.
The 2023 EU Investment Forum was organised for the fourth consecutive year since 2019 by the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and various industry associations. The previous three years' EU Investment Forums attracted over a thousand participants. The EU Investment Forum aims to promote discussions on the latest developments in investing in the EU among government, industry, academia, and various sectors.
The EU is Taiwan’s largest source of FDI. Cumulative EU business investment in Taiwan has topped US$56 billion, with 35% of that amount invested between 2018 and 2022, indicating a significant upward trend. The investment of Taiwanese enterprises in the EU has also seen significant growth recently. Over the past four years, they have invested nearly US$3.5 billion, representing nearly half of the total cumulative amount over the last 40 years.
Go Europe! Invest in the EU!