"The Ministry of Economic Affairs" (MOEA) is assessing the feasibility of further easing curbs on mainland investment in Taiwan, but no timetable has been set for a second round of liberalization, a senior official said yesterday.

Taiwan lifted a decades-old ban on mainland investment last June, and the policy has attracted NT$2.2 billion ($68.75 million) in mainland capital as of the end of February.

Responding to criticism by Kuomintang Legislator Ting Shou-chung that the government has been slow to draw mainland investment, "Economics Minister" Shih Yen-shiang said the first phase of investment liberalization that began June 30, 2009 was experimental in nature.

"We are reviewing the results of our initial market-opening measures and will continue to open our door wider to prospective mainland investors," Shih said at a hearing of the legislature's Economics Committee.

In the first stage, Taiwan opened one-third of its manufacturing industries as well as selected service industries to mainland investors, including textile and computer services.

Shih said the MOEA's Industrial Development Bureau is studying which manufacturing sectors should be opened to mainland investment in the second stage.

"We are also consulting relevant government agencies about further liberalization of mainland investment in our service sector," Shih told lawmakers.

Asked whether the second stage of liberalization would start in three months, Shih said it remains uncertain, as public agencies are still assessing the issue.

"We'll have a clearer goal for a further market opening after a thorough review of the outcome of the first phase of liberalization," Shih said.

In addition to courting mainland investment, Shih said the MOEA will also step up efforts to woo more mainland-based Taiwanese enterprises to return home to invest, with the target set at NT$38 billion ($1.19 billion).

On lawmakers' complaints about imbalances in cross-Straits investment, Shih said that as most Taiwanese companies still rely on exporting their capital abroad to develop the mainland market, it was only natural that Taiwan's investment on the mainland outstrip mainland investment in Taiwan.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 03/09/2010 page4)