Government program to curb investment to the mainland having little effect Taiwanese companies continue to invest heavily in China, indicating the loss of manufacturing jobs at home will continue and that a government program to curb investment to the mainland isn’t taking hold.Taiwanese companies invested $2.88 billion in China during the first five months of this year, up 46 percent compared to the same time in 2005, the Taiwan government said late Tuesday.The figures show the U.S. is only one of many countries struggling to hold onto manufacturing jobs amid China’s fast growth. Taiwan’s government has worked hard this year to convince companies to focus their investment elsewhere in Asia, mainly in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India, in order to diversify. Local companies prefer to invest in China because the people share a similar language and culture with Taiwan. But the two governments remain enemies after splitting in a civil war in 1949. Although Taiwanese companies are allowed to invest in most industries in China, a few restrictions remain, mainly in high tech industries such as semiconductors. Still, technology companies have made up the bulk of Taiwanese investment in China. Companies in the PC, communications and consumer electronics business accounted for 22 percent of all Taiwanese investment in China from January to May, while electronics component makers contributed 15 percent of the total, the government said.Most of the investment, 40 percent, was focused in Jiangsu Province, where Taiwanese companies have worked with local authorities to develop a number of high tech industrial parks near places such as Kunshan and Suzhou. Guangdong Province took the second largest share of Taiwanese investment, with 20 percent, while the city of Shanghai gained 13 percent.Giga-byte Technology Co., one of the island’s largest makers of computer motherboards and other PC products, made the largest investment to China during the month of May, at $50 million. The figure was followed by Lite-On Technology, which invested $20.75 million. Technology Industry