Taiwanese firm, business groups win permission to fly ROC flag in Vietnam

Staff writer, with CNA, BINH DUONG PROVINCE, Vietnam





Taiwanese-owned Kaiser I Furniture Industry (Vietnam) Co, headquartered in the My Phuoc Industrial Park in Vietnam’s Binh Duong Province, has been given permission to fly the Republic of China (ROC) flag to differentiate itself from Chinese firms.

Kaiser is the largest furniture maker in Vietnam and employs about 7,000 people.

Vietnamese authorities have granted permission for the company and other Taiwanese firms at the park to fly the ROC flag at their production facilities, Kaiser president Lo Tzu-wen (羅子文) said.

Republic of China flags fly alongside US and Vietnamese ones at the premises of Taiwanese-owned Kaiser I Furniture Industry (Vietnam) Co in Vietnam’s My Phuoc Industrial Park on Saturday. Photo: CNA

Many Taiwanese firms were affected by anti-China demonstrations by Vietnamese workers in May 2014 over Beijing’s deployment of a US$1 billion oil rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea, Lo said.

The Vietnamese government allowing the companies to fly the ROC flag is “unprecedented,” Lo said, adding: “It is an unexpected outcome of the violence against China.”

Kaiser suffered about US$1 million in losses during the 2014 protests because it was mistaken for a Chinese firm, Lo said.

The company later negotiated a tax deduction as compensation with the authorities, he said.

The company told local authorities that it was crucial that Vietnamese differentiate between Taiwanese and Chinese firms, Kaiser said.

Taiwanese investors’ associations and other business groups held talks with Vietnamese officials, which resulted in the permission to fly the ROC flag, it said.

“We can now display the ROC flag in public,” Lo said. “In the past, whenever an ROC flag was raised, China intervened and reported it to Vietnamese police, who asked us to take it down.”