Investors not impressed by recent moves

While the government must be questioning what it has to do to rescue the country's ailing stock market,analysts are wondering if the government knows what it is doing. Following a raft of market stimulus measures and the creation of a high-powered committee aimed at finding a solution for worsening economic woes, the stock market just keeps falling. It fell to a six-month low yesterday.

Admittedly, hefty falls on the US NASDAQ and a seemingly never-ending release of earnings warnings from American information-technology companies, major customers for local firms, aren't helping. But analysts say gloomy sentiment about earnings is only one part of the picture.

And while the stimulus moves were positive, analysts said the government must try harder to come up with concrete measures instead of empty talk to boost faltering confidence.

"Haven't we had enough meetings already?" asked Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會).

"The government should find out where the problems are. It doesn't even need that many people on the advisory committee," Koo, who sits on the committee, was quoted by local media as saying.

Koo said that urgent economic problems should be resolved first, and long-term policies be put aside, adding that non-pundits need not apply. "If you are not a professional, don't participate."

Government spokesman Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) responded to industrial and commercial leaders' request, saying that the number of council members will not be changed, which is still 120. However, Su said, the steering committee can recommend industrial figures to join in the future.

Day Sheng-tung (戴勝通), president of the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (中小企業協會), echoed Koo by saying that the percentage of business representatives in the council should be raised because they best understand economic problems.

The steering committee is made up of 35 members, with nearly half of whom are representatives from political parties.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has made "fight for the economy" his latest motto and called on a blue-ribbon economic committee consisting of 120 officials, politicians, academics and business leaders, such as Morris Chang (張忠謀), chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (聯電).

Thirty-five core members of the economic development advisory committee met for the first time at a preparatory meeting on Sunday.

But they could not even agree on the agenda for a main gathering set for Aug. 24 to 26.

Committee members aim to discuss issues such as industry upgrades, financial reform, the investment climate, unemployment and social welfare, as well as commercial links with China.

"It covers everything and looks like a cabinet administrative report, but there is no direction," said Norman Yin (殷乃平), a committee member and banking professor at the National Chengchi University.

"If politics gets involved, we won't be able to solve the economic problems. I am starting to feel powerless and pessimistic," Yin said.

On Monday, the benchmark TAIEX ended 1.06 percent down at 4,657.30 -- a six-month low -- and was only 70 points above a more than five-and-a-half year trough of 4,586.75 recorded on Nov. 24, 1995, when China menaced Taiwan with missile tests and war games.