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Academics cast doubt on economic meeting's outcome

Academics yesterday questioned the likely effectiveness of the upcoming Sustainable Economic Development Conference, saying that it lacked a clear orientation. They also expressed fears that it might speed up the easing of restrictions on China-bound investment.

The academics made the remarks at a forum hosted by the think tank Taiwan Advocates in Taipei. The forum was held to discuss the country's economic strategy and to make suggestions to the government, which will hold the conference from July 27 to July 28.

Chang Hsi-mo (張錫模), a professor from the Sun Yat-sen Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at National Sun Yat-sen University, questioned the legitimacy of the conference.

"The government has not yet proposed any conspicuous arguments or tenable discourse for the ... economic conference," he said.

Chang said many of the participants were unrepresentative and that some lawmakers with no background in economics were planning to attend.

"It is weird that the conference is not inviting head of the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research Chang Jung-feng (張榮豐), since the institute has done leading-edge research into the cross-strait economy, while former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who never completed the plan to build Taiwan into an Asia-Pacific regional operations center, has been invited," he said.

"We are really worried that the conference will turn into a large-scale meeting that brainstorms yet fails to come to concrete conclusions," he said.

Chang Jun-feng, who also attended the forum, said he was disappointed that he has not seen a direction for the conference so far, and predicted the conference's conclusions would be a hodgepodge of measures.

Hammering out an economic strategy effective for the next 15 years is the priority for the conference, he said.

"But seeing that many of the enterprizes which plan to invest in China are to attend the conference, I'm afraid that it will become a pretext for the Executive Yuan to speed up the announcement of opening China-bound investment," said Chang Jun-fend, who also formerly served as deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council.

Lin Hsiang-kai (林向愷), a professor of economics at National Taiwan University, said that too many interest groups taking part in the conference might impede problem-solving during discussions.

The think tank said in a press release that the conference should not become a forum for endorsing a plan to expand China investment -- a proposal made by many business leaders who are invited to attend, some of whom have threatened to boycott the conference if the government continues to ignore the issue.

Instead, Taiwan Advocates said, more time and energy should be spent on figuring out how to "actively manage and effectively open up" China investment -- a policy that it claimed would counter China's strategy to "use the businessmen to besiege the government."

Additional reporting by CNA

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