Official says EDAC proposals progressing

Taiwan's top economic planner yesterday defended the implementation progress of the 322 proposals reached by consensus at the Economic Development Advisory Conference (EDAC, 經發會) held in late August.

Chen Po-chih (陳博志), chairman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development, discounted local media reports that have said that only 11.8 percent of the EDAC conclusions have been carried out since the conference was concluded.

The five panels of the EDAC passed 322 proposals for revitalizing the nation's economy. The Executive Yuan later came up with 670 priority tasks in an effort to implement the above proposals. However, only 73 of those priority tasks have been carried into effect, the report quoted sources at the council as saying.

The actual figure, Chen said at a news conference yesterday, is 91 percent.

Chen said he had to listen to his conscience and called the news conference "to right the wrongs" that were produced by "distorted reports" by some media.

Chen said most of the EDAC conclusions have been taken care of in accordance with the special demands of each, noting that 34 proposals have been written as draft bills and forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for screening in hopes that they will be promulgated during the current legislative session.

Eighty others have technically been turned into administrative orders for implementation, said Chen, adding that it was agreed by EDAC participants that consensuses reached in the cross-strait affairs group would not be restricted to a fixed timetable for implementation.

Instead, the participants decided to keep the cross-strait business and trade policies flexible and readjust them in accordance with the timing of both sides' accession into the WTO and actual interactions between the two sides' business and trade sectors, Chen added.

In the newspaper report, officials at the council pointed out that whether or not the execution of the proposals can be improved also depends on the legislation or amendments of the 37 bills closely related to the EDAC conclusions, saying that the legislature has to pass these amendments as soon as possible.

Former premier and chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation, Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), agreed. He said the EDAC proposals are critical to Taiwan's economic development and their implementation should not be delayed because of political factors, such as the Dec. 1 elections of legislators, city mayors and county chiefs.

But Chi Schive (薛琦), president of the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance (金融研訓院), said that not all of the 322 proposals are applicable. He urged the government to screen the conclusions before putting them on a timetable for implementation.