Local business leaders yesterday extended their congratulations to President Chen Shui-bian (
"Empowered by the people's mandate, President Chen should strive for better cross-strait relations, adopting practical mainland policies to maintain cross-strait economic prosperity," said Chen Cheng-yi (
The China syndrome
Chen Shui-bian's opponents have criticized him for his track record on China and the economy.
"Chen Shui-bian's cross-strait policies have been too vague and he needs to soon come up with a plan in preparation for the resumption of talks with China," said an industry leader, who requested anonymity.
But after the re-elected president secured over 6 million votes yesterday, China will be forced to acknowledge Chen's administration and should conduct negotiations with him, he said.
Hopes for the facilitation of direct links with China have long been a common hope of the nation's business tycoons, including Wang Yung-ching (
A second chance
Rock Hsu, (
"The DPP administration should continue to improve the nation's investment environment, making sure that the supply of water and electricity is sufficient for industry to flourish," Hsu said.
Hsu is also chairman of Compal Electronics Inc (
Both Chen Cheng-yi and Hsu said they hope that political gridlock and tensions could be eliminated. They also expressed a bullish view on the nation's economic future, saying that an over 5 percent economic growth rate this year is likely if overall business confidence can be restored following the election.
GCC's Chen hopes that President Chen will not backpedal on his economic and financial policies by creating trade barriers and raising taxes, which could shackle growth.
Instead of focusing on forging closer economic ties with China, Chen Shui-bian concentrated his campaign on safeguarding the nation from Beijing's military threats as well as the communists' attempts at diplomatically isolating the budding democracy here.
An industrialist who requested anonymity suggested that President Chen reshuffle his economic and financial ministers to improve the Cabinet's capabilities in dealing with economic matters although the president suffers from a woefully limited talent pool.
All the president's men
"The lack of top-shelf economic and financial advisors to the president is the business community's biggest worry," he said.
Business leaders yesterday refused to comment on political complications involving KMT candidates' call for a recount immediately following the election, but said "such a development is surely bad for the economy," adding that such actions by the oppostion party were entirely selfish.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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