MAC: the government will appropriately ease the quota and conditional restrictions on Chinese businessmen visiting Taiwan at the invitation of related enterprises
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) convened the MAC Council Meeting today (September 25, 2006) to discuss draft amendments to Article 6 of the "Permit Regulations for Mainland Businessmen Coming to Taiwan to Engage in Commercial Activities" (hereinafter "the Permit Regulations") with a view to appropriately easing the quota and conditional restrictions on Chinese businessmen visiting Taiwan at the invitation of enterprises.
At the Conference on Sustainable Development of Taiwan's Economy (CSDTE) held in July 2006, the consensual opinions were reached on appropriately relaxing the quota and conditional restrictions on Chinese employees that are allowed to participate in conferences and other related activities in Taiwan at the invitation of transnational enterprises so as to enhance the willingness of transnational enterprises to establish operation centers in Taiwan. The consensual opinions also urged the government to appropriately ease the restrictions on Chinese businessmen visiting Taiwan at the invitation of related enterprises. Since then, the relevant government agencies have, after extensive researches and discussions, proposed draft amendments to Article 6 of the Permit Regulations with a view to concretely implementing the CSDTE’s consensus on giving priority to the easing of restrictions on personnel contacts related to normal business activities.
The MAC indicates that in order to highlight the government's positive attitude toward the implementation of the consensus reached at the CSDTE, prior to the revision of relevant regulations, the government agencies concerned have reviewed and approved on a special case-by-case basis the applications filed by Johnson & Johnson Ltd and Microsoft for permission to exceed the quota ceiling on the visits to Taiwan by Chinese businessmen. Once the relevant regulations are amended, they will provide various sectors and government agencies with a basis for regularly handling such cases.
The MAC states that after the passage of draft amendments to Article 6 of the Permit Regulations, the annual ceiling on visits to Taiwan by Chinese businessmen at the invitation of overseas Taiwanese enterprises, foreign companies’ Taiwan branch offices and their offices in Taiwan, as well as domestic Taiwanese enterprises with annual revenue of more than NT$30 million will be lifted from 30 visits to 50 visits. This is aimed at properly meeting the practical operation needs of medium and large enterprises. Furthermore, regarding the number of persons to be invited each year by the inviting entities, companies with specific needs will be exempt from the restrictions imposed on number of visits as stipulated in Paragraph 1 of Article 6 in the Permit Regulations if the authorities responsible for managing the relevant enterprises determine that such needs do exist. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will coordinate with other related agencies to formulate review principles to serve as a basis for exercising administrative discretion power in reviewing such cases.