The National Development Council’s (NDC) four-year national development plan aims to achieve 3 percent economic growth, GDP per capita of US$40,000, an unemployment rate lower than 3.5 percent and stable consumer price growth of 2 percent, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan is expected to pass the plan today.
Cho made the comments during an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) and the Central News Agency.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
The proposed targets were made after careful consideration of the domestic and international economic and political environment, and the council is expected to provide more detailed suggestions on how to achieve the goals, he said.
President William Lai (賴清德) at the end of this month would provide more details on how the NDC’s goals are to be achieved when he elaborates on his Action 101 plan, Cho said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission has proposed actionable goals and timelines to ensure that the agenda of the NDC’s Economic Development Committee would be met, especially plans to turn Taiwan into an Asian asset management center, he said.
The Grand Taiwan Investment policy hopes to attract US$3.29 trillion in investments in strategic industries, which would be selected and targeted by a cross-ministry task force, he said.
The Economic Development Committee would prioritize “inclusive growth” — which is to be discussed at the end of next month — intending to add NT$10.5 billion (US$325.04 million) to stimulate development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), he said.
Only by stabilizing its SMEs would Taiwan be able to take the next step in growing wages, he added.
While the Legislative Yuan discusses possible changes to the Basic Environment Act (環境基本法), policies to realize the goal of creating a “nuclear-free homeland” must continue, he said.
A Taiwan Power Co (台電) policy to cap electricity supply to data centers in northern Taiwan and encouraging them to move south seeks to help address the issue of energy generated in the south being used in the north, he said, adding that a slew of power plants are due to be decommissioned from next year to 2027.
The government is more than willing to discuss the possible implementation of new technologies for nuclear power generation if they are developed by 2030 and are not a security risk, Cho said, adding that the most important factor was public approval.
Commenting on Lai’s order that a deadline to improve power grid resilience be brought forward by four years to 2028, Cho said the president feels that a decade is too long to wait for a safe power grid.
Additional reporting by CNA
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