The nation's dream to become a major logistics hub in the Asia-Pacific region will be difficult to realize if direct links with China, the world's most active market, remain banned, several businessmen said yesterday.
"Taiwan lost its chance to become a logistics center in Asia, as the government had planned, over the past few years due to the stagnation of direct cross-strait traffic," said Jerry Chiu (邱重光), co-chairman of logistics committee of the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT).
He made the comment during a logistics seminar sponsored by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) yesterday in Taipei.
"The government encourages European businesspeople to invest in the nation, but it fails to improve, or map out its plans on opening direct links, which tops our agenda when making investment deci-sions," Chiu said.
Taiwan has the right advantages to turn itself into an international logistics hub -- geographic location, transportation volume and comparative costs -- compared to rivals such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, American Cham-ber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) secretary Phil Yang (楊斐) said yesterday.
But the issue of direct transportation links concerns most foreign investors, as well as local industries, as the measure will greatly improve cost efficiency, said Yang, the general manager of express company DHL Taiwan Corp.
Aside from reducing costs, the opening of direct links would provide a great opportunity for logistics operators in Taiwan and China to jointly establish world-class express companies to compete with large players such as DHL and UPS -- in view of the huge volume of goods being transported between the two sides, said Philo Pan (
A Council for Economic Planning and Development official said the it shares businesses' concerns, but the political complexity of the situation means a decision on the matter rests with the Mainland Affairs Council.
Kao Wei-feng (
Kao said the council and other government agencies can only try to improve infrastructures and regulations.
He said one major achievement of the government was the passage last year of the Statute Governing the Establishment and Management of Free Trade Ports (
That free-trade port project is expected to increase the average annual value of the nation's exports by NT$120 billion between last year and 2007, while imports are expected to grow by NT$88 billion per year during the same period, he said.
So far only Kaohsiung Port and Keelung Harbor have gained free-trade port status.
Some businessmen are less than impressed with the initiative.
Last month's issue of AmCham's Topics magazine quoted Craig Grassgart, managing director of American President Lines as saying the free-trade port initiative was "a day late and a dollar short."
He said it should have been taken five years ago, the magazine reported.
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