Tue, Feb 01, 2000 page17

• Candidates' economic proposals incomplete: analysts

  • By Shirley Sun / STAFF REPORTER
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  The financial and economic policy white papers of the four major presidential hopefuls -- KMT candidate Lien Chan (連戰), DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), independent candidates James Soong (宋楚瑜) and Hsu Hsing-liang (許信良) -- all stressed the importance of fairness and justice.

  However, important considerations such as cross-strait relations, the reconstruction of 921 earthquake-hit areas, the role of the future premier, and the consolidation of social welfare policies are missing, academics say.

  "Taiwan has always pursued economic growth over economic sustainability," said Chu Wan-wen (瞿宛文), deputy director at the Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy at the Academia Sinica (中央研究院).

  "However, in order to provide a cleaner environment and hence, standard of living, it is time for Taiwan to sacrifice some of its economic growth rate."

  According to Lin Chuan (林全), former Taipei City finance director and public finance professor at National Chengchi University, Taiwan's economic climate has been short-sighted, because over the years of development, the government didn't provide stability [of price, employment, stock market and other financial markets].

  Chu also said that Taiwan's economic development would be strongly influenced by its position toward China; however, no candidates so far have given a clear position with regard to these two interrelated issues.

  In terms of domestic economic policy making, Chu pointed out that tax credits for the electronics industry should be removed since the industry has matured, and benefits for non-professional working people should be given more consideration.

  Tseng Chu-wei (曾巨威), professor of public finance at National Chengchi University, said that Taiwan's structural unemployment situation has never been more serious, and it is important for the new government to establish some kind of social safety net. According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (主計處), after seasonal adjustment, the unemployment rate last December was 3.03 percent, which was the highest over 14 years, and the time needed between jobs increased from 15 weeks to 33 weeks.

  Specifically, social welfare policies are in need of organization. "Except for the national health insurance program, other programs such as the civil servant insurance program and the labor insurance program don't cover the general population," Lin said.

  Chu also pointed out that candidates should publish "budget white papers" (財政預算書) to clearly specify how the candidates are going to support their proposed agendas.

  "It is so easy to just make political promises one after another without backing them up with budget proposals," said Chu. "Without a budget white paper, many policies will be used by competing political parties to maintain the status quo, and the election becomes just a cheating game."
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