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Hungary among the top investment targets of Taiwanese companies in Europe!
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Hungary is among the top investment targets of Taiwanese companies in Europe despite the Orbán administration’s China-friendly policies. Is this a unique Hungarian success story attracting Chinese and Taiwanese working capital in that small Central-European country? Below is the answer based on the analysis of portfolio.hu.
Hungary is in the second place in Europe
According to a report about the EU-Taiwan relationship published last year, the Netherlands has the highest volume of Taiwanese direct investments (49 pc). However, the second place belongs to Hungary (18.8 pc). The data surprised many in the old continent because Hungary’s government has strong ties with China. Despite receiving a lot of criticism from the west because of the constantly developing Budapest-Beijing relationship, seemingly, that does not harm the Taipei-Budapest economic ties – portfolio.hu reported.
Tensions between China and Taiwan have been rising for years. Officially, the island state, which is 2.5 times smaller than Hungary, is not independent but belongs to China. De facto, Taiwan has its legislation and economic system as well as military. True, only 14 countries have established diplomatic ties with the island state. On the other hand, Taiwan is fully absorbed in the global economy. For example, it is the world’s biggest chip and semiconductor manufacturer. Interestingly, China has 55 pc of the country’s direct investments followed by the British Virgin Islands (13.5pc), the USA (6.3pc) and the EU (2.1pc).
The Central European region has been a popular investment target for Taiwan since 1990
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were among the most popular investment options following 1990 for East Asian companies. The second wave of investors came after their EU accession, and many East Asian firms bought up assets in the region after the 2008 global financial crisis. Interestingly, the Chinese and Taiwanese multinational companies arrived together in Hungary after 2000. Meanwhile, smaller firms chose the Czech Republic and Poland.