Government urged to relax regulations for service industy

To truly develop the nation's service sector, the government must change its rigid mindset and overhaul the rigid regulatory environment, industry veterans said yesterday at a forum organized by the Council for Economic Plan-ning and Development.

"Besides know-how, mindset is essential," Henry Kao (高志尚), vice chairman of I-Mei Foods Co, said at the National Conference on Service Industry Development in Taipei.

Kao said bureaucracy is the largest obstacle to development. The government needs to relax outdated regulations and become more compatible with international practice in developing the service industries, he said.

"We have seen many foreign companies deterred from investing because of complicated and outdated regulations," Kao said.

Another panelist, Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), chairman of the Taipei-based Far Glory Group that runs the Taoyuan air-cargo free trade zone, said that unreasonably strict regulations have made the operation of free trade zones less than free.

"Apart from a high tax rate, the requirement for minimal salaries and Aboriginal employment quotas deter interested parties from investing in free-trade zones, let alone the idea of making the nation into a regional logistics hub," Chao said.

Industry veterans also called on the government to consider a free flow of human resources that is crucial to boosting the sector.

In response, CEPD chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) told the forum that the council plans to amend and draft 31 laws, including the Statute Governing the Establishment and Management of Free Trade Ports (自由貿易港區設置及管理條例) and financial services laws.