Taiwan elected its first female president — Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — in a landmark election on Jan. 16, with her Democratic Progressive Party also securing a majority in the legislature for the first time. The new legislature takes office on Monday, which offers the new Cabinet opportunities to reconsider the long-awaited Free Economic Pilot Zone project and many other significant domestic bills.
The draft special act for Free Economic Pilot Zones mainly focuses on economic liberalization and regulatory loosening, which has faced hurdles as political parties and the public hold different perspectives. The draft also claims its mid-term goal is to create favorable conditions for Taiwan’s entry to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, so the act’s period of effectiveness has been set at only 10 years.
Special economic zones have been a powerful instrument for attracting foreign investments and boosting economic growth, as evidence in the growth of such the zones in East Asia, Africa and Latin America since the 1970s. However, there are also many examples of failures, where firms have taken advantage of tax breaks and natural resources. Some zones have even been criticized as “pollution havens” for failing to meet international environmental standards.
A World Bank study said that zones that are the most successful in contributing to long-term development go beyond the traditional models of attracting investment and generating employment. This means that successful projects will ultimately deliver structural transformation of the economy. Critical to this process is the degree of integration of economic efficiency with other social and environmental considerations in the domestic economy.
Established in 2012, Enterprise Zones are at the center of the UK government’s long-term economic plan, which adopts a “local enterprise partnerships” approach to create entrepreneurial cultures in local communities and deliver sustainable growth.
As climate change becomes a development challenge, exploring a new paradigm that decouples economic growth from further increases in greenhouse gas emissions is a main task.
The role of special economic zones in promoting climate-friendly development has become critical in policy discussions. The zones can provide an ideal platform for both social and environmental policy innovations, not only because of their enclave nature, but also because they own built-in compliance and implementation mechanisms.
The concept of developing low-carbon “green” economic zones is already being adopted worldwide. Northern European nations have successfully developed eco-industrial parks since the 1960s, such as the Kalundborg Symbiosis in Denmark.
It is expected that greenhouse gas emissions from developing nations will surpass those from developed countries. China, India and South Korea have realized that special economic zones will play a catalytic role in pursuing “green” growth. For instance, South Korea’s Incheon Free Economic Zone sets a clear low-carbon master plan and harnesses foreign investment to fund climate mitigation strategies.
Taiwan published its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions report before the Paris climate negotiations last year. Now it is necessary to consider incorporating this reduction commitment into the next wave of development. Synergising low-carbon and investment policies, the new generation of “green” Free Economic Pilot Zones would provide an ambitious path for long-term sustainable economic development.
Yang Chung-han is a doctoral candidate researching international environmental law at the University of Cambridge and a member of the Taipei Bar Association.
China’s supreme objective in a war across the Taiwan Strait is to incorporate Taiwan as a province of the People’s Republic. It follows, therefore, that international recognition of Taiwan’s de jure independence is a consummation that China’s leaders devoutly wish to avoid. By the same token, an American strategy to deny China that objective would complicate Beijing’s calculus and deter large-scale hostilities. For decades, China has cautioned “independence means war.” The opposite is also true: “war means independence.” A comprehensive strategy of denial would guarantee an outcome of de jure independence for Taiwan in the event of Chinese invasion or
A recent Taipei Times editorial (“A targeted bilingual policy,” March 12, page 8) questioned how the Ministry of Education can justify spending NT$151 million (US$4.74 million) when the spotlighted achievements are English speech competitions and campus tours. It is a fair question, but it focuses on the wrong issue. The problem is not last year’s outcomes failing to meet the bilingual education vision; the issue is that the ministry has abandoned the program that originally justified such a large expenditure. In the early years of Bilingual 2030, the ministry’s K-12 Administration promoted the Bilingual Instruction in Select Domains Program (部分領域課程雙語教學實施計畫).
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) earlier this month said it is necessary for her to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and it would be a “huge boost” to the party’s local election results in November, but many KMT members have expressed different opinions, indicating a struggle between different groups in the party. Since Cheng was elected as party chairwoman in October last year, she has repeatedly expressed support for increased exchanges with China, saying that it would bring peace and prosperity to Taiwan, and that a meeting with Xi in Beijing takes priority over meeting
Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman for maritime affairs Rogelio Villanueva on Monday said that Manila’s claims in the South China Sea are backed by international law. Villanueva was responding to a social media post by the Chinese embassy alleging that a former Philippine ambassador in 1990 had written a letter to a German radio operator stating that the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) did not fall within Manila’s territory. “Sovereignty is not merely claimed, it is exercised,” Villanueva said. The Philippines won a landmark case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 that found China’s sweeping claim of sovereignty in
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