The government plans to develop the nation's service industries, in an effort to achieve the goal of an annual economic growth rate of 5 percent between this year and 2008, the nation's top economic planning agency said yesterday.
"Service industries will play a key role in boosting Taiwan's economic growth and employment in the future," the official Central News Agency quoted Hu Sheng-cheng (
The expansion of service sectors could largely help enhance employment population, Hu said, citing that over 170,000 out of an increase of 208,000 in the employed population in the first six months year-on-year were hired by service industries.
As the nation's agriculture and manufacturing industries are not expected to register high growth in the future, the government would endeavor to push the development of the service industry while developing Taiwan into a manufacturing hub of high added value, the CEPD said.
The government hoped the size of the work force in the service sector would increase to around 6.14 million people in 2008 from 5.54 million last year, which would account for 60 percent of the nation's total employed population in 2008 from 57.9 percent last year, the council said.
The CEPD estimated a substantial annual growth rate of 6.1 percent for Taiwan's service industry and projected the production value would grow to NT$8.55 trillion in 2008 from NT$6.34 trillion last year, or 67 percent of the nation's gross domestic production (GDP) from 63.5 percent over the same period.
The council said it would encourage the development of strategic service industries, which would fit the criteria of high international competitive edges, growth potential, added value, innovation, and connection with other industries as well as being able to create mass employment opportunities and stable production value.
Among those would be knowledge-intensive service industries, including information, finance, communication, design, research and development, and culture, according to the council.
The substantial production value of these industries would jump to NT$4.54 trillion in 2008 from NT$3.09 trillion last year, or 35.6 percent of the GDP from 31 percent during the same time, the council said.
The number of employees in these sectors would increase to around 1.85 million people in 2008 from 1.6 million last year, or 18.1 percent of the total employment population from 16.7 percent, it said.
The first national service industry development conference organized by the council is scheduled to kick off today. President Chen Shui-bian (
Attendees would include hundreds of renowned entrepreneurs, such as Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp chairman Wu Nai-jen (
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