TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese companies made 109 investments in China during the first quarter of this year, a drop of 16.7 percent year on year, for a total of US$640 million, a decrease of 68 percent, according to data released by Taiwan’s Investment Commission on Tuesday (April 20).

The commission attributed the dramatic drop to a higher base of comparison, given the unusually large amount of Taiwanese capital flow into China during the same period last year. In the first quarter of 2020, Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corporation invested US$370 million to set up a chemical company in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, and Quanta Computer lnc. invested US$200 million in its subsidiary in Changshou City, Jiangsu Province.

Investment from China to Taiwan in the first quarter of this year amounted to US$14.4 million, a decrease of 59.4 percent year on year. The number of investments was only six, a drop of 80 percent.

Since Taiwan began to allow investment from China in June 2009, China’s accumulated number of investments has reached 1,467, which totals US$2.4 billion.