PENANG: Malaysia is set to soar with Taiwanese investors switching from China to Southeast Asia, says Lin Kai Min, president of Asia Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce (ATCC).

Lin said since 2019 Taiwanese investors have been switching their foreign investments from China to Southeast Asia due to the US-China trade war and changes in geopolitics, adding that Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand were the main destinations as of 2023.

He believed the shift of funds would provide Malaysia a good opportunity to soar.

Lin, who is also the president of Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Malaysia (TWCHAM), said the ATCC comprised of 9,500 Taiwanese investors in 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates and countries in Southeast Asia.

“For the past five years, Taiwan’s trade with these 19 countries accounted for 31.3%, greater than the island’s investment in China at 27.1%,” he said.

Taiwan’s trade volume with these 19 countries rose to 39.8% last year, he told the media after chairing a TWCHAM meeting here last Saturday.

Also present at the press conference was Phoebe Yeh, the Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia.

Yeh said the trade volume between Malaysia and Taiwan surged by 30% for the first half of this year, compared to the corresponding period last year, showing recovery especially in the electrical and electronics sector.

She said Taiwan ranked third after Singapore and Japan in terms of jobs created for Malaysians.

Bilateral trade topped US$27 billion (RM119.2 billion) last year, and Taiwan was Malaysia’s fifth largest trading partner.

Taiwan was Malaysia’s 12th largest export destination and fourth largest import source.

Yeh said Taiwanese entrepreneurs played a significant role.

Besides the electrical and electronics sector, Taiwanese investors also ventured into semiconductor, logistics, cloud services, green energy and other industries, he added.

ATCC will hold a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in December, with 800 Taiwanese investors from 19 Asian countries expected to attend.

For that, Lin said an arrangement had been made with Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to introduce Malaysia to the investors.