I am sure that this has been talked about before, but I could not find a post about so I thought I would ask.
How can a foreigner own a business in Taiwan? I am interested in opening a restaurant and would like to own it myself. I have heard of situations where people have Taiwanese partners and they get started that way. I am interested in owning the company myself. In addition to this I need to start a company that can provide ARC’s. The chef’s in the restaurant will be from other countries and will cook authentic food so it is important that I can provide them with ARC’s.
Do you have a lot of money? Do you have an ARC based on marriage?
It will take an initial investment of 5 million per sponsored ARC … every foreign ‘chef’ has to be paid min. 50,000 NT$/month …
To keep your ‘chef’s’ ARC’s you need to gross 10,000,000 NT$ a year … that’s per chef I suppose
A ‘foreign’ owned business has to get it’s invested capital wired in from abroad … getting a restaurant license is not easy as you have to be in the right zone …
Thes are just a couple of things that I know about owning your own restaurant … I had one and all was in my wife’s name … just a tat easier …
There is plenty of information about setting up a business on Forumosa, less so about opening a restaurant. We have several restaurant owners in our midst and you could always attend an entrepreneur’s meeting or two.
I own two restaurants that are in my own name. It’s not at all required to have a local partner. It makes some things easier but then it’s also easier for you to get screwed if ever there’s a problem. Your biggest hurdle is the issue of getting foreign chefs in. As the others mentioned, this requires quite a lot of investment or revenue to qualify. If you have any other specific questions, go ahead and ask.