The nation should develop export-oriented businesses to help provide jobs, a report published yesterday by the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) suggested.
According to the CEPD report, neither Taiwan's service nor high-tech sectors are able to fully absorb the workforce left jobless by the manufacturing sector, which has relocated almost entirely to China or Southeast Asia.
The domestic manufacturing sector's massive relocations overseas have pushed up the unemployment rate at home, the report notes, adding that Taiwan's jobless rate averaged 4.17 percent for the first 10 months of this year.
On the other hand, although the domestic high-tech sector has been growing steadily and earning more foreign exchange reserves, high-tech companies have not helped much in creating more job opportunities.
Under such circumstances, the government should seek to develop a labor market focusing on exports that is capable of absorbing a larger number of unemployed workers, the report says. Due to the relatively small home market, Taiwan has to revive its export-oriented businesses to improve its employment market, it adds.
Taiwan's economic miracle in the past two decades was built upon a booming export sector, it pointed out.
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