TAIWAN

Government to Ease Foreign Investment Rules: The nation plans to loosen restrictions on movements of foreign investment funds and take regulatory steps to support its slumping stock market, the Securities and Exchange Commission said last week. Foreign institutions that have received approval to bring funds into Taiwan and have subsequently taken them out would be permitted to transfer them back to the island within a period of three months. Currently, foreigners who want to bring funds into Taiwan for a second time must seek government approval, a complicated and time-consuming process cited by analysts as one reason for lukewarm foreign interest in the island’s market. SEC Chairman Day Linin said a proposal for the reform has been submitted to the Cabinet and that approval is expected soon. He said the SEC also plans to allow foreign individual investors to buy stocks in Taiwan, instead of merely foreign institutions, and to relax a rule that foreigners can remit capital gains to their home countries only once a year. However, these reforms will need revisions to securities laws by Parliament, which will take some time, Day said.