People who possess large amounts of capital appeared to reap benefits from the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), while those on the lower end of the economic scale absorbed the costs, a recently released report on the cross-strait trade pact signed in June last year suggested.
The report, conducted by National Sun Yat-sen University, was commissioned by the Executive Yuan’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission in hopes of gaining a better understanding of attitudes in southern Taiwan toward the ECFA and making the government more aware of the causes of objection to the ECFA from people in the south.
DISADVANTAGED
Claiming that southern Taiwan, whether one considered it from the perspective of political development, industrial economics or social structure, was considered a disadvantaged area, the report said that following the implementation of the ECFA, the trade pact resulted in “more negative impacts than positive benefits” to industries in the south.
As such, it made southern Taiwan a region in need of a buffer period and related complementary measures, it added.
The report said that collective views gathered from leading figures in the industrial sectors in Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung County suggested many were of the opinion that the south profits less, yet pays more of the costs of the ECFA than northern Taiwan.
The report also compared the ECFA to other instances of economic integration, citing the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between China and Hong Kong as an example, which it said had brought limited economic benefits to the Chinese territory.
The CEPA is a trade agreement that was signed in June 2007 to promote the joint development of both Hong Kong and China.
NOT SUCCESSFUL
According to the report, the CEPA was not successful in bringing back Hong Kong businesspeople who had invested in China in hopes of stimulating Hong Kong’s manufacturing sector.
After the signing of the CEPA, Chinese investors flooded the Hong Kong real-estate and stock markets, causing housing prices to skyrocket, the report said, adding that Hong Kong now has one of the largest wealth gaps among the world’s developed economies.
The report also mentioned a further outflow of Hong Kong’s manufacturing and production services after the signing of the CEPA. Hong Kong’s service industry also moved north into China, causing a second exodus of the territory’s industry, it said.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS