Like Hung, others say that the opening of direct links will be the highlight of the meeting.
"With the open-door China policies, the conference is more likely to succeed [in solving the nation's economic downturn]," Chu Yun-peng (
But Chu said that a mechanism to force the legislature to come up with the legislation to implement the meeting's resolutions should be set up as soon as possible.
"If inter-party negotiations can be conducted right after the meeting, resolutions [reached in the meeting] in written form can then be turned into a consensus agreed across all party lines to ensure the policies' implementation," Chu added.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The KMT has, however, been unwilling to sit down with the ruling party since Lien was snubbed by Chen a year ago in a dispute over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
And while finding common ground is a basic requirement of the conference, Yin said that the meeting is unlikely to ease the "no haste, be patient" policy because all 120 members will never be able to reach a consensus.
"Then, it would be the decision of President Chen whether to adapt the proposal, which may serve some political purpose for the administration," Yin said.
An economist at a large foreign bank in Taipei agreed.
"To get 120 people to agree on anything is pretty difficult, it's difficult to get even five people to agree on something," the economist said.
However, the economist added that with what appears to be a consensus across party lines, political forces in the end should be able to push the measures through.
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