Economics minister hails PRC as the No. 1 market

Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said yesterday that he saw China as Taiwan’s preferred market and that Taiwan should revise its perception of that country.

“Taiwan’s best market opportunities are on mainland China; why should it fear being tagged with the ‘one China’ label?” Yiin said in a keynote speech at the ROC Council for Industrial and Commercial Development (工商建研會).

In a speech focusing on prospects for Taiwan’s economy in light of global change, Yiin said the drivers of the global economy were weaker — referring to developed countries such as Japan and the US.

Yiin added that Global Insight had forecast the global economy would contract by 2.6 percent this year and that the US and the euro zone would see shrinkage in economic development as a result of the global financial storm.

The less-developed Asian region would maintain economic growth, largely because of the economic rise of China, he said.

Global Insight predicted China’s GDP would grow 6.9 percent this year, which the firm expected would lift the global economy by some 0.5 percentage points, he said.

China is the third-largest economy, but the second-largest according to the Purchasing Power Parity system of calculation, he said.

“Taiwan must redefine its position in relation to China,” he said.

Yiin said the Taiwanese government’s cross-strait focus was to open the door to Chinese investment and to promote an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).

Revisions to regulations covering investment from China were expected to take effect this Tuesday, and from July 1 Taiwan would begin the work of trying to attract Chinese capital, Yiin said.

He added that an ECFA would cover three areas — tariff-free exports, the liberalization of the services sector and an investment guarantee accord.

Under an early implementation agreement, some 1,000 product categories would be included in the urgent tariff-free aspect of the trade pact, Yiin said.

As for the other parts of the ECFA, it would not matter if it took 10 years to discuss them, he added.