Top economist lambastes one-directional thinking

The government should give up its one-directional thinking of "opening" and "tightening" when formulating its cross-Taiwan Strait economic policy and instead interact with the business sector to work out some feasible complementary measures, Taiwan Thinktank (台灣智庫) Chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said yesterday.

The economist was commenting on President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) New Year's address, in which the president said "active management, effective opening" will represent the new mindset and course of action for Taiwan's future cross-strait economic and trade policies.

The president said that the "active management, effective opening" policy will now replace the existing policy of "active opening, effective management" that has been in place since a consensus was reached in the 2001 Economic Development Advisory Conference.

Chen Po-chih, one of the economists who contributed to the government's "no haste, be patient" policy towards China during the 1990s, said that Taiwanese businessmen should be allowed to take advantage of the Chinese market but in cases when national interests are jeopardized, they should be prohibited from setting up operations in China.