The warm currents in the Pacific Ocean off the east coast provide good deep-sea fishing grounds, especially for tuna. The Taiwan Fishery Bureau was established to help develop the fishing industry, and the number of fishing vessels is also on the increase. Annual copper production is about 3,900 tons. Quarrying of marble exceeds 1,100,000 tons and of dolomite 55,000 tons a year. Annual production of crude oil is about 88,000 tons and that of natural gas about 1,200,000 cubic yards.
Salt production is located mainly on the southwestern coast.
In addition there are four private commercial banks. Ten enterprises, in the fields of sugar, electricity, petroleum and natural gas, fertilizers, caustic soda, aluminum, copper, shipbuilding, and railways, are government monopolies. In order to promote economic development, the local government controls and helps private enterprises to adopt new techniques and seek foreign investment. Most manufacturing industries receive technical cooperation from foreign companies. Because Taiwan is an island and thus limited in resources and the market, it must exchange goods with other parts of the world and tap overseas markets in order to support mass production and cut production costs.