As the months roll by, the public is still waiting to hear the details of a planned economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
The benchmark TAIEX has jumped 49.2 percent this year on ample liquidity, but a sudden pullback of more than 3 percent last Monday 〞 on speculation that the government could delay signing an ECFA until next year 〞 suggested that investors were looking for an excuse to take a breather, especially considering that economic fundamentals have not motivated the high stock valuations of late.
It could also indicate that investors are watching the ECFA discussion with baited breath, even though the pact＊s details remain a mystery.
The TAIEX fell 239.04 points, or 3.53 percent, to 6,530.82 on Monday, then climbed 108.59 points, or 1.66 percent, the next day following comments by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (?欳哱) and other government figures at a meeting with business leaders. The government said preparations for inking the pact were proceeding as planned.
The fuss surrounding the ECFA has been amplified by the fact that the government has not completed a study on the potential impact or made public the content of the proposal.
It has, however, said that an ECFA would secure tax cuts from China for Taiwanese businesses, in addition to other benefits, including investment guarantees, deregulation of the service sector and protection of intellectual property rights.
Whether talks on the ECFA should be included on the agenda for the fourth round of cross-strait negotiations this year is for the government to decide. What should concern investors is not how soon the pact will be inked, but what it consists of and whether it will be implemented effectively.
Investors have overlooked the fact that the ECFA has political implications as well. In terms of discussing the ECFA with the public, the government does little more than emphasize its urgency. Investors should not be satisfied. Until the government reveals its vision for the pact, it will remain impossible to speculate on the potential positive and negative effects.
Unfortunately, Liu, Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (窇??), Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (燠扴肅), Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairman Chen Tain-jy (?氝皉) and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Sean Chen (?喳), who attended Tuesday＊s breakfast meeting with representatives of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, seem uninterested in anything but the benefits for large corporations.
Despite the government＊s cheer, it remains unclear what effect an ECFA would have on domestic unemployment, small and medium-sized enterprises and local industries.
With bullish sentiment gaining momentum on the stock market following better-than-expected second-quarter reports by many US and local companies, investors should feel comfortable increasing their holdings.
They should not, however, let a vague understanding of the government＊s plans for an ECFA lead them to misjudge investment priorities. The ECFA is not only a bone of contention between the two major political camps; industrial and business groups are equally divided.
Chinese agents often target Taiwanese officials who are motivated by financial gain rather than ideology, while people who are found guilty of spying face lenient punishments in Taiwan, a researcher said on Tuesday. While the law says that foreign agents can be sentenced to death, people who are convicted of spying for Beijing often serve less than nine months in prison because Taiwan does not formally recognize China as a foreign nation, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said. Many officials and military personnel sell information to China believing it to be of little value, unaware that
Before 1945, the most widely spoken language in Taiwan was Tai-gi (also known as Taiwanese, Taiwanese Hokkien or Hoklo). However, due to almost a century of language repression policies, many Taiwanese believe that Tai-gi is at risk of disappearing. To understand this crisis, I interviewed academics and activists about Taiwan’s history of language repression, the major challenges of revitalizing Tai-gi and their policy recommendations. Although Taiwanese were pressured to speak Japanese when Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, most managed to keep their heritage languages alive in their homes. However, starting in 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) enacted martial law
“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas). But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;
The central bank and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday issued a joint statement that both sides agreed to avoid currency manipulation and the use of exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage, and would only intervene in foreign-exchange markets to combat excess volatility and disorderly movements. The central bank also agreed to disclose its foreign-exchange intervention amounts quarterly rather than every six months, starting from next month. It emphasized that the joint statement is unrelated to tariff negotiations between Taipei and Washington, and that the US never requested the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar during the
RSS