President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will soon present strategies designed to help with industrial transformation after the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is signed on Tuesday, Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday.
The strategies will promote the development of a more marketing-oriented industrial structure in the post-ECFA era and aim to attract more foreign investment, Siew said.
The signing of an ECFA presents great opportunities for Taiwanese businesspeople in China, he said, giving them a chance to redefine their markets in China and present new strategies.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
“In the course of a country’s economic development, there’ll be a transformation in 20 years ... An ECFA will create employment opportunities, balance regional developments and attract foreign investment,” Siew told an economic forum in Taipei.
Taiwan and China are scheduled to sign the pact in Chongqing, China, on Tuesday.
During the negotiations, Taiwan included more than 500 items on its “early harvest” list and China about 250.
On traded goods, there are 539 items on Taiwan’s early harvest list, with an estimated value of US$13.8 billion. They make up 16 percent of the current China-bound export volume and cover six categories.
Siew said most of the items on traded goods were products from medium or small businesses and traditional industries. With the improvement of the economic environment, the government will help those industries transform into businesses that make high-end products and expand their markets, he said.
Meanwhile, at a separate setting, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) insisted that Taipei City will benefit from the ECFA, criticizing his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) opposition to the pact.
An anti-ECFA rally, organized by the DPP, is scheduled for today.
Hau dismissed Su’s comments that an ECFA would not only affect traditional industries in central and southern Taiwan, but also hurt Taipei City, saying that Su had a poor understanding of the city.
“As a Taipei mayoral candidate, Su should have confidence in Taipei’s industries. We are not worried about competition [from China] and I think Su does not know enough about Taipei’s industries and is not prepared to be Taipei mayor,” Hau said at Taipei City Hall.
Taiwan’s early-harvest list includes 11 business categories on trade in services, including financial industry and non-financial services.
Su said on Thursday that more than 80 percent of Taipei’s workforce is employed in the service sector. An ECFA would pose a great threat to Taipei City within the next 10 years as Taiwan and China gradually move toward the establishment of a common market, Su said.
Hau said the city would set up gate-keeping measures for Chinese imports, adding an ECFA would make Taiwan more international.
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