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DPP legislators launch business group

DPP lawmakers from the party's New Tide faction (新潮流) extended their influence into the nation's business sector by founding a new commercial group, the Taiwan Economy and Industry Association (台灣產經建研社) yesterday.

"Acting as a bridge between government and industry, the association will play an important role in helping the government formulate policies that address entrepreneurs' needs," Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said at the association's founding ceremony yesterday afternoon.

Headed by DPP Legislator Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌), the association currently has more than 240 members from leading corporations, academia and government officials.

According to Hung, several forums will be set up to conduct monthly discussions on cross-strait trade, banking issues, high-tech development, human resources and the investment environment. Heading the various committees will be David Hong (洪德生), vice president of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, Wei Chi-lin (魏啟林), chairman of the Land Bank of China, Lin Ferng-ching (林逢慶), CEO of the Institute for Information Industry (III), Wang Ting-an (汪庭安), a consultant to the Executive Yuan and Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵), newly appointed chairman of China Steel Corp (中鋼).

The vice premier and the governor of the central bank, Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), spoke as guests at the launching ceremony and warned of China's economic magnetism, which has helped it to attract investments totalling US$340 billion from the world over the past few years, including US$65 billion from Taiwan alone, Perng said.

Both high-ranking government officials said that Taiwan needs practical and flexible economic and financial policies to strengthen competitiveness and to seize business opportunities -- to adapt to the current trend toward globalization.

In a seminar following the founding ceremony, Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) further addressed measures to improve Taiwan's investment environment so as to attract both inbound and foreign investments.

Hsu made normalization of cross-strait trade ties the top priority, saying the implementation of direct links between Taiwan and China will help to decrease the China-bound exodus of capital.

He said that his business partners from DuPont told him that the US company may set up its Asian-operations center in Taipei if roundtrip flights between the city and Shanghai could be shortened to take less than a day.

He also highlighted the importance of preferential tax treatment, industrial land use, a sufficient supply of water and electricity and flexible labor policies to build up Taiwan's economic competitiveness.

Hsu further noted that expatriates in Taiwan are also amazed by extravagant electoral campaigns, which he said should be reduced to create political stability.

Sharing a similar view, Chang said that Taiwan should upgrade from a labor-intense economy to a knowledge-based economy, respecting principles of a free-market economy.

Law and order remains a major weakness in Taiwan that needs to be greatly improved, he added.

But he praised the talent pool in Taiwan, in which he said highly educated, professional and "workaholic" employees are plentiful although he added that the quality of the nation's talent is deteriorating slightly.

Chang, in addition, yesterday criticized the use of stock bonuses -- offered to employees as benefits in many local firms -- as a bad and unfair practice because inexperienced and ill-performing staff would also receive bonuses if the company's overall performance is good.

"Stock bonuses should be replaced by stock options," he said.
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