Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"Under the current domestic political and economic circumstances, the government is unlikely to raise tax rates to help make ends meet," said Chang while answering lawmaker's questions at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
Chang further said the government cannot follow the Bush administration's move to plan a massive tax cut package to stimulate US economic growth.
For one thing, Chang said, the US income tax rate is far higher than Taiwan's. "So there is room for the Bush administration to consider tax cuts. In contrast, our tax rates are among the world's lowest. We'll not consider any tax reduction at the moment," the premier stressed.
In the face of an economic slowdown and rising unemployment rates, Chang said his Cabinet will redouble efforts and upgrade efficiency to resolve current economic woes.
"We'll demand all relevant government agencies implement up to 90 percent of the previously unveiled economic stimulus package to help expand the domestic demand and increase job opportunities," Chang assured the lawmakers.
Speaking on the same occasion, Chen Po-chih (
Meanwhile, senior executives of Taiwan's three largest commerce and industry associations met with the premier and Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (
Lin Kun-chung (林坤鐘), chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會), Wang Ling-lin (王令麟), chairman of the ROC General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會), and Chuang Wei-chi (莊為璣), secretary-general of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) briefed the top leaders of the executive and legislative branches on the difficulties faced by many local enterprises due to a worldwide economic slowdown.
In a statement received by the Taipei Times, the three industrial and business leaders told Chang and Wang that many well-managed local companies now still have troubles obtaining capital to finance their business operations or expansion projects.
They urged the government to coordinate with local banks to offer a one or two-year "grace period" for those companies to repay their debts to be matured at the end of this year and to properly increase bank credit lines for those companies.
The business leaders said the six-month "grace period" for debt repayment offered by the government to well-managed private firms late last year has proved to be helpful. Therefore, they said they hope the government can continue adopting such measures to help local enterprises navigate their financial difficulties.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last