The ban on direct air links with China and limited capacity of air freight services at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport could harm the competitiveness of Taiwan's high-tech industry, said members of a joint US-ROC business group yesterday.
At the annual meeting of the ROC-USA and US-ROC Business Councils, vice president of Federal Express Scott Hallford said Taiwan was in danger of squandering the trade benefits linked to its cultural and geographical proximity to China by maintaining restrictions on direct air links.
"The cost advantages of sourcing supply across the strait are obvious," said Hallford. "Clearly restrictions limit the viability of trade and investment, particularly in the high-tech industries that require rapid, overnight or second day delivery of components to the second link in the production chain."
He said that if Taiwan companies couldn't keep abreast of this express delivery trend then they might find "their roles progressively marginalized if US and Japanese multinationals are able increasingly to integrate vertically with mainland suppliers after China's WTO accession." This problem won't be mitigated by the relatively small capacity of air cargo facilities at CKS, said American Chamber of Commerce's executive director Richard Vuylsteke.
"We are very concerned about this issue," said Vuylsteke. "Not only for the viability of Taiwan but also the viability of the American companies that our organizations represent."
Chairman of the Taiwan-based ROC-USA Business Council C.Y. Wang (
Concern surrounding the slow air freight service at CKS has been enflamed by repeated delays in completion of the second terminal which was originally scheduled to be operational by the end of July.
Construction and operation of the terminal was divided into two sections, which were then offered through public tendering to Eva Air (
David Laux, former president of the US-ROC Business Council, made a passionate plea to the Taiwan government to speed up construction of the project, alluding to better efficiency across the strait. The Chinese "could construct the Great Hall of the People in ten months," said Laux.
"Taiwan is much more of a can do society than over there ... may I respectfully suggest that you adopt this as a national priority," he said.
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