Yu says he'll promote business' ideas

Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday led his economic and finance ministers to a meeting with leaders of six business groups, agreeing to facilitate seven of the business community's proposals.

"I am here to re-emphasize the President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration's pledges on economic reforms," Yu told reporters after his two-hour closed-door meeting with the business leaders.

He also said that that he would be attending the bi-monthly meetings himself in the future, instead of sending his vice premier. Former vice premier Lin Hsin-i (林信義) used to attend the meetings on Yu's behalf in the last administration.

According to Yu, the Cabinet will soon establish a timetable to accelerate the inking of a free-trade agreement with the US.

Washington's concerns over Taiwan's improvement in dealing with intellectual property rights (IPR) and IPR violations has been cited as one factor delaying such an accord.

The US's other concerns also include Taiwan's progress in opening up its rice, medicine and telecommunication markets.

Yu said that he would assign Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) to work out the details for the accord's facilitation.

Yu also reiterated the government's promises to capitalize the credit guarantee fund for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with an annual budget of NT$10 billion while strengthening the micro-loan services for SMEs.

In addition, he agreed to work to build the nation into a capital-raising center in the Asia-Pacific region while accelerating the local financial market's internationalization and liberalization.

Upon a suggestion from Gary Wang (王令麟), chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce (商總), Yu also agreed to re-submit the Real Estate Securitization Statute (不動產證券化條例) to the legislature to revise the bill's exclusion of undeveloped land.

Securitization of real estate refers to the process of converting properties into marketable equities for sale to investors.

Such investors can then become shareholders in multi-million-dollar skyscrapers with a small amount of money and benefit from such profit-making building's revenues and dividends.

When the bill was passed last July, private property developers were excluded from the securitization plan and they have complained.

Meanwhile, upon a suggestion made by Chinese National Federation of Industries (工總), the premier instructed Minister of Eco-nomic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) to study the possibility of exploring the nation's deep-sea waters as a new natural resource for future commercialization.

The federation said that the nation should try to take advantage of the waters 200m below the surface, with the government helping the private sector in developing commercially-utilized products using deep-sea water.

Wrapping up the meeting, Yu vowed to step up the government's efforts to help the tourism indus-try's finances and improve the local investment environment to attract bio-technology investors and talent.

Among those attending the meeting from the government were Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南).

The business leaders included Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會), Rock Hsu (許勝雄), chairman of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (電電公會), and Day Sheng-tung (戴勝通), chairman of the National Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (中小企業協會).