Taiwan and Hong Kong were urged yesterday to forge partnerships in the service sector to explore the growing Chinese market.
Taiwan has great potential to explore business opportunities in the Chinese service market because of the similarity of the cultures on either side of the Taiwan Strait and the newly signed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), Chen Tain-Jy (陳添枝), an economics professor at National Taiwan University, said at a Taipei forum on Taiwan-Hong Kong trade.
“We need to pay special attention to this, it’s one of the biggest opportunities in China following the signing of the ECFA,” he said.
Taiwan and China have agreed to ease restrictions on certain financial and other services under the trade pact.
There is still a lot of room in which the service sector can grow in China, since it now accounts for just 40 percent of the country’s GDP, Chen said.
He said Taiwan and Hong Kong could collaborate on medical treatment, environmental protection and cultural innovation, since they have vowed to commit to these fields and can complement each other in these respects.
“The development of these emerging service industries can utilize Taiwan’s advantage in information and communications technology,” said Chen, a former head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
In terms of environmental protection, for example, Taiwan has achieved remarkable progress since it is already the world’s largest producer of energy-saving LED lights, he said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong has rich experience in epidemic prevention, while Taiwan is planning a system of insurance policies to cover long-term care, he said.
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