ABSTRACT
The island of Taiwan was occupied by Japan from 1895 to 1945. During that period, Taiwan was regarded as a colony that supplied raw materials and agricultural products to Japan and as a market for Japanese manufactured goods. Taiwan’s economy has undergone significant changes since the mid-1980s. Increasing labor costs and appreciation of the Taiwanese dollar in the 1980s sped up the globalization of Taiwan capital by increasing financial and investment activities in overseas financial markets. In 1994, Taiwan became the world’s twentieth largest economy and fourteenth largest trading nation. The Taiwanese government has declared its intention to develop Taiwan into an Asia-Pacific Regional Operations Center by promoting R&D targeting high value-added product development supporting capital intensive investment projects. The Council for Economic Planning and Development of the Executive Yuan is responsible for the overall planning and coordination of the project.
