Fujian continues to lead in attracting Taiwan agro investment

Fujian continues to lead the provinces and areas on the mainland in the scale of agricultural investment from Taiwan, a conference said on Feb 18.

According to Li Daiyi, deputy director of the Fujian provincial department of agriculture, by the end of last year, the number of Taiwan's investment projects Fujian's agro-sector has reached 2,681, with contracted value of $3.95 billion.

In 2018, Taiwan inked 48 agro investment contracts with Fujian, with combined value reaching $120 million.

The result is inseparable with the support for Taiwan agro enterprises from both the central government and local government.

In 2015 China's Ministry of Agriculture launched a pilot project in Fujian to reduce the operation cost of the Taiwan companies in the agro-sector through provision of loan interest subsidies.

Statistics show that more than 50 Taiwan agro-businesses have been granted 14.95 million yuan in subsidies by the ministry over the past three years.

In 2017, the figure reached 4.95 million yuan, with benefit going to 22 Taiwan agro-companies in the province.

The policy greatly alleviates the financing difficulty and high cost facing the Taiwan agro-companies in Fujian, and has been widely acclaimed.

Chen Jianfu, a Taiwan resident who runs a farm in Zhangping, Fujian is one of the beneficiaries of the policy.

"The subsidies offered tremendously fueled growth, when considering the large-scale of investment and long payout period in the sector," said Chen.

In 2016, the Taiwan businessman applied for a loan of 1.25 million yuan and had to pay the bank over 80,000 yuan in interest. However, after deducting the government subsidies, he only had to pay roughly 20,000 yuan.

Officials from the Fujian Provincial Department of Agriculture revealed that all the Taiwan agro-companies in the Taiwan Entrepreneurship Parks across the province are entitled to cuts of 75 percent of loan interest.

In 2018, on top of the ones from the central government, the Fujian provincial government had furthered its support for companies from across the Strait. It allocated a fund of 3 million yuan to subsidize Taiwan agro-companies in the province, according to Fujian Daily, citing local authorities.