The Cabinet yesterday unveiled a NT$2.6 trillion, six-year national development program aimed at building a nation devoted to clean high-tech industries rather than the pollution-causing regime that made Taiwan a world-class trading power.
The Executive Yuan plans to wrap up the project with a huge expo in 2008, trying to steal some limelight from China as Beijing plays host to the Olympic Games.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The proposal is scheduled to be approved today at the weekly Cabinet affairs meeting before officials will start to solicit opinions from scholars, business leaders and lawmakers.
Addressing an outdoor press conference at the Juming Museum in Chinshan, Taipei County, yesterday afternoon, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said that the government hopes to reach seven goals with the implementation of the project.
"We'd like to develop at least 15 products or technologies that rank among the world's best, double the current number of foreign tourists, have research and development expenses account for 3 percent of GDP and decrease unemployment from the current 5 percent to 4 percent," he said.
In addition, the Cabinet hopes the project would help to spur Taiwan's economy to grow 5 percent, popularize the household use of broadband Internet services to 6 million homes and create 700,000 new jobs, Yu added.
To reach the goals, Yu said the Cabinet would initiate "three revolutions and four investments."
The "three revolutions" are political reform, financial reform and banking reform. The "four investments" are investment in talent, investment in research and development (R&D), investment in a global operations network and investment in the people's living environment.
The plan also encompasses 10 major tasks.
They are to make English the nation's second semi-official language, to cultivate creativity and cultural talent, to build Taiwan into Asia's leading research and development center, to develop Taiwan as the world's production and supply center for high value-added products and to double the annual number of foreign tourists.
Others include making Taiwan Asia's most digitalized country, building a convenient, islandwide mass transportation network, creating a better living environment for local talent and international professionals and gradually restoring Taiwan's ecosystems.
To make English the nation's second semi-official language, the Cabinet is considering creating an English environment, encouraging college and university teachers to use English as an instruction medium and upgrading civil servants' English ability.
To improve Taiwan's R&D base, the Cabinet plans to offer NT$50 billion in loans to help the corporate sector devote more time and energy to the task.
To improve the capacity to produce high value-added products, the Cabinet plans to raise NT$100 billion in venture capital to encourage businesses to invest in the development of such products.
To raise the number of foreign visitors, the Cabinet plans to develop and integrate tourism resources and to encourage travel agencies to offer package tours with longer stays.
To build Taiwan into an operation center, the Cabinet plans to encourage the industrial sector to establish a harbor-free-trade area, an operations headquarters and barrier-free customs.
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