The Taipei-based American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) said it was pleased to see that economic relations between Taiwan and China improved significantly over the past year and that Taiwan’s government acted on a number of the group’s suggestions on cross-strait trade and other economic issues.
In the latest issue of its monthly publication, Topics, AmCham offered an assessment of the status of issues raised by the group in its Taiwan White Paper released in June, covering areas such as banking, chemical manufacturing, infrastructure, insurance, intellectual property, pharmaceuticals, retail, transportation and taxation.
“AmCham is gratified that the government has continued to take the White Paper recommendations extremely seriously and has made progress in a number of areas, “ chamber president Andrea Wu (吳王小珍) was quoted as saying.
“We look forward to further close interaction with government agencies in hopes that even more issues can be resolved before the next edition of the White Paper is ready for publication,” she said.
Wu listed three areas that require further government attention to enhance Taiwan’s investment competitiveness, including reconsideration of the “unrealistically aggressive” schedule set for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the elimination of the requirement that foreign employees of non-tech companies have at least two years of work experience.
Taiwan should also expedite environmental impact approval for important pending projects, including proposed new power plants and the Kuokuang petrochemical complex, she said.
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