When Premier Chang Chun-hsiung
The plan is to adjust it in the direction of "proactive openness and effective management" (積極開放,有效管理). Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (
Clearly, economic exchange and opening up between the two sides of the Strait are the keys that will determine whether or not the icy cross-strait relationship can be thawed and a healthy pattern of interaction started. We should, therefore, adopt a pro-active attitude toward the problem of appropriately adjusting the no haste, be patient policy.
Actually, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has long intended to replace the no haste policy with proactive openness and effective management as the keynote of Taiwan's cross-strait economic policy. During the recently convened National Economic Development Conference (全國經濟發展會議), the no haste and "big three links" (大三通) policies were the focus of concern from every corner of society. During the conference, the Executive Yuan indicated that it was thinking along the lines of loosening the restrictions and that it would present a concrete plan within a month.
With this in mind, we see that, economic development having run into a bottleneck, the government already intends to relax restrictions on industry going ashore on the other side of the Strait, in accord with demands from the business world.
Furthermore, in recent months, business leaders -- including Taiwan's "god of business," Wang Yung-ching (
Clearly, "to boldly march west" has already become a widespread demand among Taiwan's business leaders.
The no haste policy was an economic safety mechanism drawn up under the old government due to a rising tide of voices from the business world calling out to march west. The business world, however, saw the mechanism as an isolationist policy, which, under globalized competition, would only stifle the vigor of Taiwanese business and suffocate our own economic vitality. Although the policies were issued from above, counter-measures arose from below. In the last 10 years, despite the constraints of the no haste policy, the amount of Taiwanese capital flowing into China has exceeded US$100 billion.
Although the government set up the no haste safety valve, the fact that such a gigantic amount of capital could flow into China proves that the efficacy of the policy has been far from obvious. In implementing the policy, the government has also appeared to face numerous difficulties. Thus, at the current stage, only if a balance can be found between no haste and march west will the economy continue to grow on a firm foundation.
Furthermore, Taiwan and China are both on the verge of entering the WTO and becoming members of the world economic system. After China enters the WTO, it will necessarily tend more toward a free economy and the whole market may also move toward greater openness. As countries around the world make China an important focus of their global economic strategy and gaze greedily at its market, aren't we tying our own hands and letting a business opportunity slip by if we can't relax the no haste policy at the appropriate time? Relaxing the policy now is a necessity.
In the short term, however, as the government relaxes the restrictions, marching west and "going ashore" may develop into a massive movement to invest abroad. This could create a financial dilemma at home for both the government and the people. For this reason, government agencies should adopt a macro perspective and new thinking to firmly protect Taiwan's economic development as a breakthrough is made in advancing west.
At the same time, they should research and plan counter-strategies to problems that may derive from these policy changes. If the government can adopt a pragmatic point of view toward the "China fever" among Taiwan's businessmen and carry out the appropriate opening up of the no haste policy, I believe it's possible to leave our roots in Taiwan even as we open up and march west.
Chou Fang-lan is an engineer.
translated by Ethan Harkness
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