President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) needs to improve his leadership acumen and communication prowess to win public support for major government reforms, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei said yesterday.
The call from AmCham came after the Ma administration’s efforts to ease import restrictions on US beef containing residues of ractopamine and introduce a capital gains tax on stock investments encountered stiff opposition from lawmakers and the public alike.
“The road ahead is very tough ... There is no room for indecision or hesitation,” AmCham chairman Bill Wiseman told a media briefing on the release of its annual white paper.
Ma, Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) and the Cabinet need to garner the support of civil servants, lawmakers and the public to reconcile opposing interests in the reform process, Wiseman said.
The beef dispute raises concerns over the administration’s credibility, Wiseman said.
Taiwan signed an agreement with the US in October 2009 to open the door to bone-in beef, ground beef and other products from cattle under 30 months old. However, two months later, the legislature revised the regulations, halting imports of ground beef and internal organs from the US, prompting Washington to accuse Taipei of violating the agreement and suspend talks on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
AmCham urged the government to seek a resolution to the dispute over US beef imports, resume TIFA talks and pursue stronger trade and investment ties with the US and other trade partners, including participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
AmCham said it supported the government’s decision to raise electricity rates to encourage conservation, but recommended a restudy of what it called overly ambitious carbon reduction targets and a decision not to extend the lifecycles of existing nuclear power facilities.
“Simultaneously carrying out the two policies means high costs that undercut Taiwan’s competitiveness,” Wiseman said.
He shied away from comments on the capital gains tax plan, but said policy uncertainty would have a negative impact on financial markets and the sectors linked to their performance.
The latest white paper pressed for a more favorable environment for cultivating startup companies and reduction of the withholding tax on foreign entities supplying services and intellectual property to Taiwan.
The paper also suggested restoring the tax exemption on royalties for foreign patents and know-how utilized by Taiwanese companies and increasing incentives for the private sector to engage in research and development.
The proposed tax cuts would help Taiwan overcome the innovation gap that constrains many of the nation’s industrial sectors, Wiseman said.
AmCham also recommended stronger laws against the misappropriation of trade secrets that takes the form of personnel recruitment by rival companies, Wiseman said.
The paper urged the government to end job protectionism, which it said has led to a brain drain and uncompetitive wage levels.
Policymakers should lower personal income tax rates to help attract foreign talent and streamline immigration procedures for bringing Chinese professionals and qualified hospitality industry workers to Taiwan, Wiseman said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS