ABSTRACT
Since 1989, when the banking law was revised in order to promote liberalisation and internationalisation of Taiwan’s financial system, the focus of the government has been on turning Taipei into a regional financial centre. Several factors stimulated this ambition. Taiwan’s continuously growing economic strength (by the end of 1992 Taiwan’s foreign reserves had grown to US$82 billion and the per capita GNP was US$10,202) was one major factor. At a more psychological level, the newly emerged desire to forge an internationally acknowledged national identity, separated from the issue of its relationship to the Chinese mainland, also worked as a catalyst to strengthen this ambition. Moreover, the increasing coalescence of the global economic system into three regional groups (North America, West Europe and East Asia) has also reinforced this vision.
