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Business relationship with Taiwan should expand

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  • Originally published July 15, 2008 at 6:47 p.m., updated July 15, 2008 at 6:47 p.m.

The Crossroads Region visit by Jospeh F.C. Chen, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, was welcomed.

Relations between Taiwan and the United States, and particularly Texas, is a valued partnership.

Chen told Advocate reporter Tara Bozick (Advocate, Page B1, Sunday, July 13) “We hope the trade between Taiwan and Texas can expand.”

We, too, hope that trade can expand.

With Taiwan investing $10.2 billion in U.S. companies, and $3.2 billion in Texas alone, we acknowledge Taiwan’s significance as a trade partner, friend and neighbor.

Locally, there are about “15,000 to 20,000 people directly or indirectly linked to Taiwan in your part of the state. this is mainly due to the presence of two major Taiwanese investments; Formosa Plastics Corporation in Port Lavaca (which has 4,000 employees, 200 from Taiwan; if each household has three family members, then the population is 12,000,) and Nan-ya Plastics Corporation in Wharton (about half the size of Formosa Plastics),” said TK Lee, director of the press division of the Houston based Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.

Taiwan elected a new president in March this year.

“Through a free, fair and peaceful election, Taiwanese people have elected Mr. Ma Ying-jeou and Mr. Vincent Siew of the Kuomintang as their next president and vice president … the process and outcome of the presidential election have, once again, shown to the world a more mature and dynamic democracy in Taiwan, and further demonstrated the important role of Taiwan as a beacon of democracy in Asia,” Lee said.

“We would like to express our gratitude to the U.S. government and people for their long-standing support of Taiwan’s democratic development, and hopes that the U.S. government and people will continue to support the efforts of the new president to consolidate and deepen the substantive relations between our two countries,” Lee added.

We support expanded trade and continued friendship with Taiwan.



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Comments

  • JK1 JK1 Report a ViolationReport a Violation Permalink  | 

    Formosa thanks Arenot for a continuing business relationship for 23 years. We also would like to have this commenter contact us (987-7701, Jim) so that we could understand the concerns expressed in his Blog. This would provide us an opportunity to improve our relationships with our local community.

    However, we do pride ourselves in the benefits that we provide to the local community. Over the last five (5) years : Formosa has paid over $500 million in payrolls; paid over $150 million in school/property taxes; and provided almost $1 million in grants for projects in the tri-county area. These projects have benefited local religious organizations, schools and scholarships for local students, Hospitals, and environmental improvement projects.
    Formosa's 1800 employees is also very proud of its safety performance, and are celebrating our best safety record we achieved in 2007.
    Last month Formosa received a "Caring for Texas" award from The Texas Chemical Council for "Demonstrating commitment in community awareness , emergency response, pollution prevention and security".

    July 17, 2008 at 12:20 p.m.
  • arenot arenot Report a ViolationReport a Violation Permalink  | 

    Unfortunately the author has not had any business relationship with the Taiwanees businesses he references. I have had over the past 23 years and continue to have dealings with Formosa Plastics and can attest that their business philosophies are inconsistent with the American ways of doing safe, fair, and worker-conscious operations. In my opinion, no matter what the economic advantages in expanding business with the Taiwanese companies, they would not, as has been the case since Formosa has been here, safely and honestly contribute positively to our community.

    July 16, 2008 at 10:17 a.m.