Taiwan needs a pair of wings to lift its economy and emerge from its current economic stagnation, and improvements to local economies and value-added innovation would serve as those wings, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
The development of local economies with a range of characteristics and job creation potential as well as industrial competitiveness coming from value-added innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for the creation of a new driving force for the economy, Tsai wrote on her Facebook page.
“Neither is dispensable for Taiwan to develop its economy in the face of global financial crisis and future challenges,” Tsai wrote.
Photo: Yang Yi-min, Taipei Times
Agriculture is the key to developing local economies, Tsai said.
The former DPP presidential candidate called for a comprehensive review of the fallow land agricultural policy and for the government to assume a managerial role in developing those lands, without taking property rights away from farmers.
Taiwan was forced to implement fallow agricultural policies after its accession to the WTO in 2002, making the Council of Agriculture “more of a subsidy distributing agency than a policy formulating agency,” she said.
The council’s role should be changed and the ministry should lease fallow land at higher prices than past subsidies so the areas can be utilized to increase agricultural production.
The other wing would be “innovation, entrepreneurship and high value-added products,” which Stan Shih (施振榮), former chairman of the computer manufacturer Acer, also advocated, she said.
Tsai encouraged young people to establish their own businesses with courage and confidence, the same way their grandparents and parents did in the post-World War II era, which later became known as “Taiwan’s economic miracle.”
“It’s time for young people in Taiwan to create their own businesses using innovative ideas. The passion of these young entrepreneurs would get Taiwan’s economy moving again,” she said.
Asked on the sidelines of a folk ceremony in Yilan County yesterday about the current socio-political atmosphere and whether the Cabinet should be replaced, Tsai told reporters that people seem to be experiencing a collective fear caused by financial hardship.
She did not say whether there should be a Cabinet reshuffle, but said “Taiwanese are very aware of how well the administration has performed.”
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS