The American business community feels positive and confident about the future business environment in Taiwan despite seing little improvement over the past year in a few key areas, according to a survey released yesterday.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) released the results of its Year 2000 Business Confidence Survey yesterday, with results showing little improvement in the areas of corruption and transparency, but a stronger performance by the government in both transportation and telecommunications infrastructure.
The survey of AmCham members was conducted between March 3 and 17 by research firm Asia Market Intelligence Ltd (AMI,
"The performance ratings of Taiwan's overall business infrastructure, including telecommunications and transportation, have significantly improved since last year," said Paul Cassingham, president of AmCham.
"Meanwhile, our members are also more positive than last year about access to markets in China and the opportunity to compete fairly in the domestic market," Cassingham added. Additionally, members also believe that the overall quality of life in Taiwan has improved.
However, the survey found that among the issues deemed most important by members, efficiency and transparency of government and absence of corruption saw only marginal improvement.
"AmCham members say they have seen essentially no improvement in the level of corruption in Taiwan, no improvement in the transparency of government rules or regulations, and no improvement in cross-strait relations," said Robin Brown, managing director of AMI.
While, the survey showed a mixed response to the performance previous administration, there were signs yesterday of a more positive view of the incoming government.
"As an overall assessment of the economic performance of the outgoing Administration, the results are positive, but not unblemished," Cassingham said.
Representatives from AmCham met with President-elect Chen Shui-bian (
"We remain very optimistic about the ability of the new administration to address the issues (of transparency and corruption)," Cassingham said.
The Chamber called on the government to continue on the path of reform, saying that current policies were generally sound.
"Our survey results may be a call for fine tuning of the economy, but not a call for radical change," Cassingham said.
Telecommunications representatives from the Chamber, for example, urged the government to ensure better enforcement of existing telecommunications laws, citing the Directorate General of Telecommunications (DGT,
Paul Hoffman from AmCham's Telecommunications Committee called on the government to restructure the DGT to make it more independent and more efficient.
He cited the US' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as a model for Taiwan to follow.
"We are very hopeful that the government will actually take a look at this change and accelerate it because it will become extremely important with the new fixed-line businesses coming in" Hoffman said.
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