APEC leaders will maintain hefty stimulus packages until they secure a “durable” recovery from the global economic slowdown, a draft communique said yesterday.
“We will maintain our economic stimulus policies until a durable economic recovery is secured,” the draft said, stressing that “economic recovery is not yet on a solid footing.”
Leaders of the 21-member APEC forum, including the US and China, will meet in Singapore next Saturday and Sunday to discuss global economic recovery, environmental issues and free trade.
The administration of US President Barack Obama — who will attend APEC — implemented a US$787 billion Recovery Act in February which the White House says has saved or created nearly 650,000 jobs, and likely more than 1 million.
Analysts say that massive stimulus packages rolled out by Asian governments played an important role in helping the region weather the downturn better than the US or Europe.
The Asian packages totaled more than US$1 trillion, according to a tally by Standard and Poor’s, led by US$585 billion in spending by China.
The APEC summit’s host, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), said this week that winding down the stimulus packages to make way for growth led by the private sector should be managed carefully.
“How exactly it has to be phased out ... and how you balance the risks of withdrawing too quickly and administering too much adrenalin, that is something which will have to be discussed by the finance ministers and the central banks and calibrated as we go along,” he said.
Asia-Pacific leaders also plan to call for sweeping cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the draft communique said.
“We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries,” the draft said.
Next week’s summit will come ahead of crucial world climate talks in Copenhagen next month.
The leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to reaching a “good agreement in Copenhagen to enable the full, effective and sustainable implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the draft said.
“Human-induced climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world,” it said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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