The European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) yesterday laid out a one-year timetable in three phases for future policy deregulation that the foreign business chamber expects president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to deliver soon after he takes office next month.
By August, the ECCT expects Ma to realize his campaign promises, including direct weekend charter flights to China, allowing 3,000 Chinese tourists per day to Taiwan and eliminating the 40 percent cap on China-bound investments while providing tax incentives for high-tech companies, as a way to boost the local economy and create a friendly environment for foreign businesses, ECCT chairman Philippe Pellegrin told reporters after a board meeting with the chamber’s 15 directors.
“After the election, Taiwan is back on the map,” said Pellegrin, who is also the senior country officer of investment bank Calyon’s Taipei Branch, while expressing European businesses’ support for the new government’s efforts to better link the local economy to that of the region.
Pellegrin said there appeared to be a change in the mood at European headquarters as some European businesses, which had bypassed Taiwan for years, were reevaluating how they could leverage the nation’s strength to increase their presence in the greater China region.
Another ECCT director, Jim McCabe, president of Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan (渣打銀行), was also “upbeat’ about the local economy and the financial sector’s outlook.
The chamber said that the nation’s strengths are now becoming better known among European businesses with its well-educated work force, good infrastructure and relatively good quality of living environment in Asia.
Some of the chamber’s members, however, said they would be very disappointed if Ma failed to make progress in his first year in office.
“He has a mandate to accelerate, otherwise we may be talking negatively in a year,” said ECCT director Alois Hofbauer, who is also the general manager of Nestle Taiwan Ltd (雀巢).
In addition, the chamber expects that by the second phase in December, Ma would lift foreign investment limits such as the 0.4 percent ceiling on Chinese H-shares, remove the ban on Chinese imports and develop a global marketing campaign to highlight the nation’s advantages and development potential.
In a year, the chamber hopes Ma will fulfill his “roadmap to prosperity” by implementing regular direct passenger and cargo flights across the Strait, lowering corporate and personal income tax to levels that are competitive with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, and extending the tax loss carry forward period to 15 to 20 years from the current 10 years, while revitalizing the coastal zones to develop the yachting and water sports industry.
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