Most reform measures in recent years have been half-baked. Shackled by political differences, compromises have to be made in any type of reform -- political, economic, social, educational. The effects of many reforms have been undercut by the lack of complementary packages or resources. The result is the nation pays a lot, but gets little in return. The reforms do not win praise from the international community, and the people don't acknowledge the government's determination to undertake reforms or their results.
The Legislative Yuan held a three-day extraordinary session this week to review six financial bills related to the government's two major policy aims -- financial reforms and cross-strait economic rela-tions. Four bills passed -- the Real Estate Securitization Statute (
This outcome may look good at first sight, but the failure to pass the other two bills -- amendments to the Statute Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
The financial-committee law establishes a mechanism for financial monitoring and management. The Agricultural Finance Law is aimed at fixing the grassroots level financial institutions whose operations have been distorted by political factionalism and which are sinking under the weight of bad loans.
The proposed financial reconstruction fund was aimed at resolving problems posed by financial institutions' bad assets and improving the bad-loan situation, in order to revitalize the economy and prevent Taiwan from copying Japan's economic decline. So the government is ready to launch its financial reforms, but the programs have not been given the drive they need to kick off. The steep fall in financial stocks yesterday was proof that the financial sector and the public were disappointed by the legislature's ineptitude.
The establishment of free-trade ports is a revised version of the Asia-Pacific operations center and Asia-Pacific logistics center programs drawn up by the KMT government. These free-trade ports, which will be customs-free areas, will allow Taiwanese businesses to combine manufacturing in China with processing and marketing in Taiwan. This country will be able to flexibly use Chinese and Taiwanese raw materials to raise the added value of China-made materials and semi-finished products. This is supposed to help redirect capital that has flowed out to China and was to be new strategy for cross-strait economic and trade relations.
However, due to the heightened cross-strait frictions caused by the SARS epidemic, President Chen Shui-bian (
The government, political parties and lawmakers were under intense pressure to produce results during the extraordinary session. The government needs to continue to negotiate with the opposition to resolve the differences on the remaining legislation. The government should also understand that reforms need to come with complementary packages. Free-trade ports need direct links. The extraordinary session should only be a comma, not a full stop. There is still a lot of hard work ahead.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations