Free Port Open Landing Visa and Un-define Category of Industry

By taking the model of free port adopted by Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands into consideration, the Council for Economic Planning and Development of the Executive Yuan drafted the statute governing the establishment of free ports, under which the free ports to be established in the future will not define the category of industry and will be regarded as a “bonded zone” open for any enterprises including multi-national enterprises, where it is not necessary to declare the goods at customs and the dealers can carry out storage, logistics and processing autonomously.  The landing visa for 72 hours will be open for the international business dealers, including dealers from Mainland China, to help them engage in business activities in the zone.

The statute is enacted for the purpose of continuously promoting the liberalization and internationalization of economy, activation of international harbors and working benefits of airport-related areas, and upgrading Taiwan’s international competitive power, improving the development of higher value-added business activities and speeding up the logistics of goods and meeting the demand for international enterprises’ connection of multi-national production and marketing, so as to enable Taiwan to be a key position leading the transaction of trade business and a distributing and trading center.

Source: Commercial Times 06/10/2002