Foreign investors have taken a keen interest in Taiwan's online game companies, as the sector was the one about which most inquiries were received on an overseas tour aimed at seeking foreign investment for local industries, Taiwan's over-the-counter (OTC) market officials said yesterday.

According to the officials, the Taiwanese firms, including International Games System and Soft World International Entertainment, had the most inquiries by foreign enterprises over the past two days of a three-day seminar being held in Hong Kong and Singapore by Taiwan's OTC market authorities and JP Morgan Bank, followed by biotechnology and computer-related firms.

OTC market authorities have since 2006 been promoting such investment seminars overseas, and the effects, particularly on the local entertainment business,have gradually emerged and have increasingly paid off, they explained.

Thanks to Taiwan's language and cultural advantages in China, many foreign enterprises are seeking to cash in on the lucrative Chinese video game market - worth 25 billion Chinese yuan (S$5.08 billion) per year - by forging cooperation with Taiwanese companies, they said.

Taiwan-based China Gamer International Corp. announced recently that it had marketed one of its 3D on-line games in China through a joint venture with Changyou.com, which in turn is affiliated to Sohu. com - China's largest portal Web site - in a bid to obtain a larger slice there.

China Gamer shares were at one point in the recent year the most expensive stocks on the Taiwan's bourse.

With the strong desire to break into the Chinese market, Gamania Digital Entertainment, one of Taiwan's most prominent online game producers, has also revealed plans to launch three new games on the Chinese market next year, following in the footsteps of Wayi International Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd., which broke into the Chinese market last year with a range of its popular products.