Doing Business in Taiwan: From a Legal Environment Viewpoint

It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to speak here. Most of you are likely students of this university. Yes, I am, too. That is, I was also a student of this university and sat here listening to lectures some years ago. It means a great deal to me to be able to return to campus to share my experience with all of you. Let me start my presentation. I would like to relate to you a story that often occurs to me in my work. The story is about doing business in Taiwan. One day, one of my clients, Mr. Yamamoto, visited my office in Taipei. He is the owner of ABC company in Japan and ABC company owns valuable IP and high-end technologies. ABC company manufactures certain high-end machines and has appointed a distributor in Taiwan. Through this distributor, ABC company has generated revenues from sales in the Taiwan market. Due to the high cost of labor in Japan, ABC company plans to shift manufacturing overseas where capable engineers are available. He is looking, for instance, at Taiwan. However, Mr. Yamamoto is not familiar with the legal regulations regarding investment in Taiwan.