After the meeting with Ming-Hsin Kungu, Minister of the National Development Council of Taiwan, that was held remotely on Tuesday, Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation, said that she welcomes the investments that Taiwan plans to make in Lithuania, and is looking forward for decisions on specific investment projects. Lithuania is most interested in the potential investment of Taiwanese investors in sectors of semiconductor and laser manufacturing, and of biotechnologies.

At today‘s meeting, the Minister of Taiwan informed A. Armonaitė that in the nearest future Taiwan will open a 1 billion USD loan fund for joint business projects of Lithuania and Taiwan. Last week, Taiwan announced that it will set up a 200 million USD fund for investments in Lithuanian industry. The Minister A. Armonaitė hopes that the conditions of these funds will be very favourable for the implementation of joint projects and investments by Taiwanese investors will reach Lithuania as soon as possible.

‘Our cooperation with one of the most advanced economies in the world can open up huge opportunities for Lithuanian high added value sectors, such as manufacture of biotechnology or innovative products. We are looking forward for specific decisions on Taiwanese investments, and, during the meeting, I proposed to consider Lithuania as a potential location for investments in semiconductor industry’, – says A. Armonaitė. Investments in these areas would strengthen economic breakthrough of Lithuania, and would promote business-science cooperation.

According to her, Lithuania has a strong interest in cooperation with Taiwan, which is the most important player in the global semiconductor market, in creating a semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in the country. Taiwan could offer knowledge, competencies and professionals, and Lithuania, in turn, could offer the world renown lasers, which could be integrated into semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwanese investment in chip designing, also sharing modern chip technologies and direct investment in chip manufacture would create added value not only for Lithuania but also for the whole Europe.

In additiona, Lithuania is interested in increasing the scale of trade with this island. It is planned that in the nearest future, Lithuanian companies will be able to join PC Home, one of Taiwan’s largest e-commerce platforms, and start trading online in the Taiwanese market.

A. Armonaitė informed the Taiwanese Minister about the country’s readiness to establish a Lithuanian trade representation in Taipei. The aim is to ensure that the sales representative would start work next spring.

‘We are grateful to Taiwan for its decision to take over 120 Lithuanian goods containers, that are stuck in China. We have forwarded a request from Lithuanian business representatives to intensify this process. Lithuanian companies want to take advantage of economic relationship between Taiwan and Lithuania, which is becoming increasingly active, and to increase significantly exports to the island. We expect to do this this year, after opening out trade representation in Taipei’, – said the Minister.

In 2020, exports to Taiwan amounted to 19 million euros (0.1% of total Lithuanian goods exports), and imports from Taiwan, respectively, amounted to 66 million euros (0.2% of total Lithuanian goods imports).