Foreign investment falls 18.24%Staff writer, with CNAForeign direct investment (FDI) fell 18.24 percent to US$7.48 billion last year from a year earlier as COVID-19 spread worldwide, the Investment Commission said yesterday. The number of approved applications from foreign investors fell 20.68 percent year-on-year to 2,711, it said. Foreign investment is mainly in financial services and insurance, wholesale and retail trade, real-estate activities, information and communication technologies (ICT), and electronic parts and components manufacturing, the commission said. The commission attributed the sharp decline in FDI to a continued worldwide rise in COVID-19 cases that affected foreign investors’ policies toward direct investment in Taiwan. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s approved foreign-bound investments rose 6.73 percent last year from a year earlier to US$1.26 billion, the commission said.

Source: Taipei Times January 20, 2022 20:29 UTC