President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday vowed to continue to open Taiwan's market in the hope of creating a freer environment for investment.
Ma blamed the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government for adopting a conservative economic policy and discouraging Taiwanese businesses from listing their companies here.
Ma said that as the 400-year history of Taiwan showed that opening up the local market fosters prosperity and closing leads to decay, his administration had made aggressive efforts to open up the local market since he took office in May.
“If we don’t do it now, I’m afraid it will be too late,” he told the annual meeting of the Asia Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Taipei yesterday morning. “When the global economy becomes better, we will be ready and our economy will rise up with the wind.”
The currency policy was insufficient to tackle “import inflation,” Ma said, adding that only effective financial and economic policies could revive the economy.
Two examples were the weekend charter flights and the increase of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, he said. While they were expected to help boost the economy, Ma said, the effect would be limited if there were no other supplementary measures to go with them.
Ma said the former administration set many financial restrictions on Taiwanese businesspeople, including the 40 percent ceiling of China-bound investment. Because of the restrictions, the country lost massive amounts of capital over the past eight years under the DPP administration, he said, estimated at over NT$4.5 trillion (US$148 billion). Ma’s administration last week announced plans to ease the cap and scrap it altogether for companies that are headquartered in Taiwan.
Ma said restrictive investment policies were adverse to Taiwan and ineffective to China. With the deterioration of the investment environment in China, Ma said Taiwan must provide a freer and more open investment market, adding that the matter has been high on his administration’s agenda. Using Ireland as an example, Ma said The Economist magazine described Ireland as a country that was “poor among the rich” about a decade ago, but now it has become “the Shining Ireland.” Its adherence to “flexibility, agility and pragmatism” has helped the country transform itself and return to the global arena, Ma said, proving that opening up, practicality and deregulation were key to economic success.
His administration was also committed to the “I-Taiwan 12 infrastructure project,” Ma said, and planned to infuse NT$4 trillion into the project, with two-thirds coming from the government and the remaining third from the private sector.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS