Taipei Times (TT): The eurozone’s debt crisis is continuing to influence the global economy this year. How can Taiwan minimize the negative impact of this and create new economic opportunities?
Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘): Deepening regional integration with Asia would be an important direction for Taiwan in strengthening our economic capabilities, so we have to accelerate the pace of economic liberalization and the track of signing more free-trade agreements with other countries.
On Monday, the premier [Sean Chen (陳冲)] asked the Council for Economic Planning and Development to do more research on the creation of a free economic demonstration zone. This is an important process in the nation’s economic liberalization, which could help us gain the essential conditions for participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ultimate goals.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
In addition, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China signed on June. 29, 2010, has proved to be a driver for Taiwan’s investment sector.
TT: Officials in both Taiwan and China once said China “offered favors” to Taiwan in the signing of the ECFA. Has the ECFA really helped Taiwan that much?
Yiin: I never said that China “offered favors” to us in the ECFA, because we always hoped to take more advantages from them during the negotiations, like adding automobiles, LCD panels and some key items in the machine tool and petrochemical industries to the “early harvest” list.
Therefore, in the next round of negotiations with China, I hope representatives from Taiwan will secure more favors for us, even signing a “trade in goods” agreement. Overall, I think the signing of the ECFA was still a major breakthrough that will do more good than harm for Taiwan.
TT: The latest data released by the Bureau of Foreign Trade showed the ECFA only helped reduce US$114 million in tariffs for Taiwan in the first 11 months of last year, with the utilization rate standing at just 21.1 percent. Does this mean the ECFA’s benefits were lower than the government’s expectations?
Yiin: Although the government had forecast the ECFA would reduce tariffs by US$9 billion per year at most, it counted the total 8,000 items exported to China as zero-tariff items, with the utilization rate reaching 100 percent. So it is too early to say the ECFA’s benefits were lower than expected, as it needs more time to wait for benefits fully emerge.
Meanwhile, other than direct benefits, another main positive effect brought by the ECFA was increasing investments. According to the bureau’s data, approved Chinese and foreign investment totaled NT$4.96 billion last year, up 30.01 percent from a year earlier. This could definitely be referred as the ECFA’s spillover effect.
Nevertheless, the government has to focus more on pursuing higher utilization rate for the ECFA by promoting it more to domestic exporters, as well as discussing with China about simplifying the procedures.
TT: What are your thoughts about Taiwan’s industrial transformation and industrial innovation, especially the ailing DRAM, LCD, LED and solar energy sectors?
Yiin: For the LCD panel sector, I think local manufacturers should form stronger alliances with downstream suppliers to consolidate the market and develop a new business model. Other than Chinese TV manufacturers, domestic LCD companies should also focus on cooperating with downstream suppliers in Japan, who own high-level video technology.
As for the DRAM sector, Taiwanese companies must be determined to carry out industrial rebuilding. How to consolidate the industry by transforming the capacity-oriented business mode to a technology-oriented one would be a key factor to get the industry back on track.
Basically, we hope local companies will hang on until the global economy rebounds. And at an appropriate time, I will also discuss my thoughts with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to see if the government could help these industries properly.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last