During a meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (
"For the next 20 years, China is sure to be the Asia-Pacific region's economic locomotive, which Tai-wan should take advantage of," James Sha (沙正治), chairman of the Monte Jade Science and Technology Association (玉山科技協會), told a press conference yesterday afternoon after the meeting.
Sha said that turning around the nation's slumping economy is closely tied to China's economic boom and urged the DPP administration to quickly relax cross-strait trade regulations.
After the two-day seminar on inbound investments concluded, Sha and other association members met the president and the premier to present their petition to the government.
They recommended that Taiwan reposition itself as a hub of top-tier talent and innovative design in the region. They also said the establishment of mature capital markets will help Taiwan attract global investment, while a determination to protect intellectual property rights will serve to retain multinationals.
The president and the premier praised the proposals and instructed government agencies to study the ideas further, said Minister Without Portfolio Tsay Ching-yen (蔡清彥).
"Within a week, the Cabinet should be able to finish reviewing the proposals reached in the seminar," Tsay said at the press conference.
Tsay, however, did not elaborate on how the government would implement the proposals raised by the association, nor did he specify whether the president agreed with the association's pro-Chinese-market stance.
Quoting the premier, Tsay said that the Cabinet has put a great deal of effort on speeding up internationalization in order to promote a business-friendly investment climate.
Ray Chen (陳潤吾), a Monte Jade member and chairman of California-based Raytron International Group, said that the "window of opportunity" for Taiwan to enter the greater China market may be short-lived.
Monte Jade has more than 10,000 individual members and 3,000 corporate members in the high-tech industry.
Meanwhile, in the morning session, a corporate lawyer and intellectual-property specialist, Paul Hsu (
Many good business ideas fail to materialize due to a lack of available cash, he said.
"Business start-ups should be strongly encouraged in a knowledge-based economy and the government should facilitate such a financing chain," Hsu said at the association's seminar.
Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥), vice chairwoman of the Cabinet-level Council of Economic Planning and Development, said that the government is planning to set up a seed fund, which will play the role of venture capitalists and support entrepreneurial start-ups, even if their business plans fail to convince banks to give them loans.
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