Chen predicts economic boom

"I'm confident that economic growth this year will reach 5 percent, surpassing Singapore and Hong Kong."

President Chen Shui-bian

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that with the global economy picking up, Taiwan's economy will strengthen day by day, and he assured the people that the local economy will definitely boom this year.

President Chen, seeking re-election, made the remarks yesterday during visits to several temples in the Sungshan district to pray for a peaceful and properous new year. Yesterday was the fourth day of the first month of the Year of the Monkey, which traditionally is the day for Chinese to greet the arrival of the God of Fortune.

Chen, who started his political career by serving as a Taipei City councilman in the Sungshan and Hsinyi districts, asked for the continued support of his long-time followers in the March 20 presidential election.

Touting the performance of his government, Chen said that over the more than three years of his term, the nation's foreign exchange reserves have almost doubled from US$105 billion when he assumed office in May 2000 to US$206.6 billion at the end of last year.

Taiwan's businesses were adversely affected by the outbreaks of SARS in the second quarter of last year, the president noted, but the nation rebounded strongly in the third quarter to register economic growth of 4.18 percent. Fourth quarter growth stood at an even better 4.81 percent, the president said.

"I'm confident that economic growth this year will reach 5 percent, surpassing Singapore and Hong Kong," the president said.

Chen also said that the jobless rate in Taiwan dropped to 4.71 percent at the end of last year. This compares with 10 percent in Germany, 9.7 percent in France, 7.5 percent in Hong Kong and Canada, 5.9 percent in the US and Singapore, and 5.2 percent in Japan during the same period.

"I'm sure Taiwan's jobless rate could drop to 4.5 percent this year, and 4 percent next year," the president said.

Chen also said that the government has written off more than NT$1 trillion (US$29.67 billion) in bad debts over the past three years.

Non-performing loans of financial institutions have been reduced, and the structure of financial institutions has greatly improved, with the overall investment environment strengthening, he said.