The government is planning to establish a partnership with the private sector to carry out public works projects that it hopes will enhance the technical capabilities of local companies and boost the local economy over the next decade.
In an interview with local media on Tuesday, Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Chairwoman Christina Liu (劉憶如) said the council is conducting discussions with other government agencies about how to push for a partnership between the public and private sectors in carrying out public construction programs.
Liu said the concept would be applied to 32 infrastructure initiatives, including proposals to upgrade transportation links nationwide and build a knowledge-based economy, develop emerging industries, such as biotechnology and green energy, and strengthen the service industry.
The concept for public-private partnerships came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) outlined a vision on the eve of the second anniversary of his inauguration last month to create a “golden decade” for Taiwan.
Liu said “golden decade” development would look beyond economic growth numbers to focus on improving Taiwan’s investment environment and raise the nation’s international competitiveness.
The top economic planner singled out the local healthcare sector in the interview as one of the areas targeted, saying the nation has earned a reputation for providing high-quality medical services.
Once the government relaxes certain restrictions, she said, the sector would be able to cooperate with the tourism industry to attract foreign visitors and eventually enhance the nation’s international visibility.
Liu said the motivation behind developing public-private partnerships is not to raise funds for future investment, which she called a non-issue, but to encourage local high-tech or biotech firms to build strategic alliances with foreign enterprises and develop know-how and patents.
Because the 32 projects would be huge and involve in a wide variety of disciplines, the government needs to carefully consider their value, the order of implementation, fund allocations and their impact on the local job market, she said.
No timetable has been set for the projects, she added.
Meanwhile, Liu said existing measures to create short-term jobs will be phased out once the local economy and job market improve, though she did not specify the degree of improvement necessary for the programs to be eliminated.
She also acknowledged that short-term job creation measures were designed to solve short-term problems, but that Taiwan still needs to restructure itself to meet long-term challenges.
The short-term measures were taken to stem rising unemployment triggered by the global financial meltdown that started in September 2008.
Last year alone, the job incentives created 73,000 short-term jobs, and the government anticipates that an additional 103,000 jobs of varying lengths will be created by the end of this year.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.39 percent in April after hitting a record high of 6.13 percent in August.
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