Investment forums to be held in New York, London

        A delegation composed of government officials and executives from 17 listed Taiwanese companies headed by Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng set out Oct. 11 to present a series of seminars in New York and London in an event dubbed the Taiwan Global Investment Forum. The New York forum was scheduled for Oct. 13-14, and the London forum for Oct. 17-19.

        The purpose of the seminars is to attract foreign investment in Taiwan's financial services, high-tech manufacturing and telecommunications sectors. However, "It is not a traditional overseas road show," said Kong before leaving.

        He explained that, unlike earlier investment-seeking delegations, the focus of this one is not on promotion of specific ventures in Taiwan but on educating potential foreign investors about the advantages offered by Taiwan's superior financial and overall business environment.

        Kong himself, along with a number of the others in the delegation, is particularly eager to describe to foreign businesspeople measures the government has already implemented and will implement to liberalize and invigorate Taiwan's financial sector. The FSC's mission is to transform Taiwan into a world-class financial market and regional hub for capital management and fund raising, said Kong.

        One of the FSC's strategies is to boost Taiwan's capital market by attracting overseas companies to list US-dollar-denominated stocks and bonds in Taiwan. It is anticipated that the current ban on financial products denominated in foreign currencies will be lifted in the not-too-distant future.

        "The commission is considering allowing overseas investors to conduct bond trading first," Kong was reported as saying by a local newspaper.

        Formerly head of the Taiwan office of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., another focus of Kong's work as FSC head since assuming the post last July has been to help Taiwanese companies extend their global reach by attracting foreign funding. He was scheduled to be a keynote speaker at the New York forum, which was arranged in cooperation with Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

        Other financial officials scheduled to make a presentation at the forum are Wu Nai-jen, president of the Taiwan Stock Exchange Co.; Wu Tang-chieh, head of FSC's Securities and Futures Bureau; and Gary Tseng, director-general of the Bureau of Monetary Affairs.

        The role of the private-sector representatives in the delegation is not to make deals on behalf of their own companies but to give foreign businesspeople the benefit of their long, firsthand experience in doing business in Taiwan, particularly with respect to the financial sector, including both banking and the securities market.

        While representatives of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co., the Blackstone Group and the Taiwan Greater China Fund will give the inside scoop from their points of view as financial-sector players in Taiwan, other companies, such as Chunghwa Telecom Co. and the computer and electronics firms Acer Inc. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will give the lowdown from their particular perspectives, with special emphasis on the legal ins and outs of listing stocks and bonds in Taiwan. Acting as seminar leaders and promoting Taiwan in general rather than their own companies is a novel role for these businesspeople.

        According to the second-stage financial reform agenda of the President Chen Shui-bian administration, the number of banking and financial holding institutions will be halved through mergers in order to improve Taiwan's international financial profile. It had been hoped that this target could be achieved by the end of this year. Despite setbacks that will make this impossible, the president stressed in his address to the Oct. 10 National Day rally that he will press forward with the consolidation plan despite resistance from various quarters.