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Siew nixes idea of Cabinet reshuffle

Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday bluntly acknowledged that the Cabinet needs to conduct a self-review over the dismal performance of the TAIEX, but stopped short of suggesting a Cabinet reshuffle over the matter.

Siew said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had not discussed with him whether the Cabinet should be reshuffled. He merely stressed that he had made his economic views clear to Ma and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), and that he hoped the Cabinet would propose effective policies in response.

Siew made the remarks in Swaziland where he arrived on Friday on Ma’s behalf to attend the 40th anniversary celebration of the country’s independence from Britain and the 40th birthday of King Mswati III on Saturday.

The Taiwan Stock Exchange’s benchmark index fell further below the 20-year average to 6,307.28 on Friday, completing a 739-point, or 10.5 percent, drop for the week.

Commenting on the plunging TAIEX, Siew said the effectiveness of the Cabinet’s measures would be reflected in the performance of the market.

He said the TAIEX had dropped further than other stock markets, and that this was something that required looking into.

Siew, who was lauded by Ma as “the architect of Taiwan’s economy,” said the most urgent issue for the economy was to stimulate domestic consumption and increase investment, and that these were the two wheels that would get economic confidence rolling, adding that this is the only way to affect the stock market.

Siew affirmed the mid- to long-term direction of the Cabinet’s deregulation, reform, opening and innovation policies, saying the goal was to build a healthier economic system that could offer greater potential for entering and positioning Taiwan in the international community.

Siew said, however, that the problem was that the impact of global inflation and economic recession meant the government could not only work in a medium to long-term perspective, but must also propose emergency response polices for the short term.

Siew said that Taiwan’s export industry was also facing difficulties, since its largest export destination, the US, was in economic recession. In combination with increasing imports, Siew said, Taiwan experienced an export deficit in July for the first time in recent years.

He said that the government must adopt policies that stimulate consumption and increase investment.

In July last year Ma, then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate, announced Siew as his running mate, praising him as a “pilot” that the nation desperately needed and saying that he had chosen Siew for his expertise in finance and economics.
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