The Executive Yuan’s new policy guidelines will prioritize increased foreign and domestic investment in Taiwan, which the Cabinet hopes will resolve “five shortages,” Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, referring to shortages of water, electricity, workers, land and talent in the nation.
Investment in Taiwan has been in decline since 2000, with figures from last year showing that total investment comprised only 20.9 percent of GDP, which has greatly hurt Taiwan’s economic development, Lai said.
One measure to increase investment aims to increase usage of public construction funds, he said.
Only 80 percent of the central government’s annual budget of about NT$50 billion (US$1.65 billion) for public construction is used, Lai said, exhorting the National Development Council and the Public Construction Council to increase oversight of public construction projects.
Another measure would encourage state-owned enterprises to avidly look into investment opportunities to maintain their sustainable development and help the nation’s economy prosper, he said.
The Executive Yuan has demanded that state-owned business propose and complete projects on time, Lai said, adding that each project must have appointed supervisors and deputy supervisors.
Projects would also be required to have a task force, which is to monitor difficulties that might be encountered, including differences of public opinion, legal difficulties, or interdepartmental coordination problems, Lai said, adding that such efforts would enable the Cabinet or other agencies to resolve issues early.
The premier also instructed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to launch a general review of its Invest Taiwan Center.
While the center has reported 762 investment projects exceeding NT$500 million each since last year, they include cross-departmental and local government initiatives, he said.
The center must be capable of handling investment proposals from foreigners, domestic enterprises and Taiwanese compatriots living abroad on a one-to-one basis, Lai said, instructing the ministry to develop plans to empower the center with such capability.
The premier ordered a review of the center’s staff composition, saying that he wants more personnel from the Executive Yuan and the Financial Supervisory Commission, and adding that he hoped more young Taiwanese would join the center.
The center should shift from passively gathering data to actively seeking out potential clients and investors, Lai said.
The nation should also provide further incentives to local enterprises to continue to invest and develop in Taiwan, he added.
Corporations such as Winbond, which announced a NT$300 billion investment project in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, whose chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) pledged to keep the company’s research and development division in Taiwan, have provided encouragement to the nation, Lai said, calling on all companies regardless of size to increase their investment in the nation.
Lai said he would convene another meeting to resolve the five shortages and their effect on investment in the nation.
The lack of goals for investment has also been a problem, but such issues should be resolved by the government’s investment into the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and the “five plus two” innovative initiatives — developing an “Asian Silicon Valley,” biomedicine, “green” energy, “smart” machinery and the national defense industry, as well as a new agricultural model and a circular economy.
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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