Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday stressed the need to improve management of state-owned businesses and instructed a Cabinet task force to ensure greater transparency in their operations to improve their competitiveness.
Wu issued the directive after being briefed by Ministry of Finance officials at a weekly Cabinet meeting.
The premier asked that the task force, led by Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), more closely monitor the government agencies in charge of running state companies.
He said management transparency and the operational strategies of these businesses must be improved to make them more efficient and profitable.
To that end, a set of national-level management mechanisms must be put in place, Wu said.
In the Cabinet briefing, the ministry officials said the central government had total “direct investment” of NT$37.9 trillion (US$1.184 trillion) in 49 businesses.
Some 377 government appointees sit on the boards of these enterprises, the ministry said.
The central government also has NT$74.24 billion in “indirect investments” in 674 businesses, in which there are 2,214 government appointed supervisors and board members, the ministry said.
The officials said major problems facing these state-run companies included the lack of a standard system for evaluating and paying personnel.
These companies must address poor performance and incompetence as well, the officials said.
As some state enterprises are operated by more than one government agency, another problem is a lack of coordination among the different departments, they said.
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