TAIWAN

Foreign Investment Down Again: Continuing a decline that started in 1990, newly approved foreign investment in Taiwan totaled $54.7 million in May, down 32.3% from a year earlier, according to the government’s Investment Commission. For the first five months of the year, new foreign investment declined 14% from a year earlier to $310 million, the commission said. New foreign investment in Taiwan has declined over the last three years because of the appreciation of the new Taiwan dollar against the U.S. dollar, rising wages and a shortage of industrial land and labor.