Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/17
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan 

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) The Philippines is positioning itself as Taiwan’s “gateway” to Southeast Asia and hopes to spur two-way economic and educational exchanges with Taiwan, an official with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei (MECO) said recently.

Michael Alfred Ignacio, director for commercial affairs at MECO, said he has seen “very strong interest” from Taiwan’s government in advancing its New Southbound Policy, partly shown by Taiwan being the second largest source of foreign direct investment in his country last year.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, Taiwanese FDI in the Philippines was 10.833 billion Philippine pesos (US$223 million) in 2017, about a seven-fold increase from 1.608 billion pesos in 2016, and about double the amount Taiwan invested in 2015.

“We want to become Taiwan’s gateway to Southeast Asia and New Southbound countries,” Ignacio said, referring to the strategy adopted by Taiwan since May 2016 to forge links with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, countries in South Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.    [FULL  STORY]