Government
Liberalizes Establishment of Logistics Centers
The
Ministry of Finance (MOF) has announced to revise the Regulations Governing
Customs Clearance for Goods of Logistics Centers designed to promote the development
of logistics centers, encourage private capital to enter the market, and help
make Taiwan into a global logistics hub by lowering the threshold for setting
up such centers. The revision reduces the paid-in capital requirement from the
original NT$200 million to NT$150 million and increases the number of
permissible branch logistics centers, thus making operations more flexible.
The MOF points out that the original rules limited branch logistics centers
that an operator was allowed to establish at different locations to two,
because the branch centers operate independently with their own individual
accounts and with autonomous management, and are not necessarily smaller in
scale or business volume than the parent logistics centers. The present revision
eliminates that restriction and allows any logistics center with a paid-in
capitalization of at least NT$150 million to set up two branch centers plus one
more for each capital increase of NT$60 million. This also applies to foreign
branch companies that apply to establish logistics centers.
The revision also relaxes requirements regarding the location of logistics
centers. In addition to the original locations, including international harbors
and airports, export processing zones, and science parks, logistics centers may
now be set up in agriculture technology parks, thereby promoting the
integration of agriculture with logistics supply chains and facilitating
industrial development.
