The appointment of veteran economist Hu Cheng-sheng (胡勝正) as minister without portfolio yesterday gives the minor Cabinet reshuffle a dose of economic clout.
But as director of Academia Sinica's economic institute, Hu faces an uphill battlefield strewn with economic landmines.
For starts, unemployment is at a 15-year high, international demand for Taiwan's export products is sliding and the domestic investment environment continues to deteriorate as the high-tech sector seeks greener pastures in China.
But one government watcher says that even with the addition of Hu -- a strong economic theorist -- he can achieve little on his own.
"He faces a very tough battle because he can't do the whole job by himself. He needs a strong team but the [economic] team is not functioning well," said Norman Yin (殷乃平), an economics professor at National Chengchi University.
"We can't put too much faith on one man's ability to deal with the economic problems the country is facing."
But Hu told the Taipei Times by phone yesterday that he was up to the task.
"I will do my best to help the premier improve the economy," Hu said. "While I am still unclear how I will assist the Cabinet, I believe the premier will probably have me focus on macroeconomics and monetary issues. But I won't know until Wednesday when I meet the premier and receive my instructions."
Hu, who served as an economics professor at Indiana's Purdue University from 1968 to 1996, returned to Taiwan to work for Academia Sinica in 1996. He received his PhD in 1967 in economics from the University of Rochester, New York.
Yesterday's reshuffle by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Hu said that the trouble in the banking sector and monetary policymaking would top his list of priorities.
"The first issue is to reduce the ratio of non-performing loans, and the second is to improve information transparency in the monetary system," Hu said. "We have to focus on these to improve the credibility of the financial system."
Hu also said mapping out both a short- and long-term economic plan was the key to tackling both the economic slowdown and rising unemployment.
"We can resolve the two problems together by, in the short term, expanding domestic demand to increase employment and, in the long-term, by transforming our economic structure," Hu said.
According to Hu, he will also help coordinate economic-policymaking -- an area pundits say the Cabinet is weak in.
"I will be working closely with [the Ministries of Finance, Economic Affairs and the Council for Economic Planning and Development] to coordinate economic policymaking," Hu said.
But while Yin agreed that coordination was a priority, he said obtaining the cooperation of economic officials would prove to be a formidable task.
"Since economic officials have done little coordination in policymaking in the past 10 months, the public should not expect too much from them now" following Hu's appointment, Yin said.
"Economic and finance officials prefer to "blow their own horns," Yin said.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS