The Cabinet yesterday approved a forecast of 3.8 percent GDP growth next year, with Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Yiing Chii-ming (尹啟銘) saying that the figure was “no exaggeration.”
When the council revealed the forecast last week, Yiing promised to give up his year-end bonus if the target was not reached next year.
Under the development plan for next year approved by the Cabinet, the council projected an unemployment rate below 4.1 percent and consumer price index of no more than 2 percent.
At a press conference yesterday, Yiin said that the forecast was determined based on cautious assessments of supply and demand factors and views offered by officials at the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics and at the central bank, as well as academics.
“The 3.8 percent GDP growth target is not unreachable, and it’s not just me saying so,” Yiin said, citing as references the World Bank ‘s prediction of 4 percent GDP growth in Taiwan next year, the Asia Development Bank’s 3.8 percent and the IMF’s 3.9 percent.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) has estimated that the nation will see 3.88 percent GDP growth next year, while Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶來研究院) forecast the GDP would expand 3.85 percent, Yiin said.
The council predicted that between next year and 2016, the average economic growth rate will be 4.5 percent annually, the consumer price index will be kept under 2 percent and the unemployment rate will be reduced to below 3.9 percent by 2016.
Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) said that the forecast was challenging and reflected the Cabinet’s ambition and determination to deliver economic recovery.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with