China is no match for Taiwan in terms of economic competitiveness, President Chen Shui-bian (
In an attempt to stem the exodus of Taiwan's enterprises to China, Chen urged the country not to believe claims that China is better than Taiwan in terms of doing business.
Quoting a Financial Times survey, Chen said that China lagged far behind Taiwan in overall competitiveness, personnel quality, the number of skilled workers and resources.
Chen also cited the "Global Competitiveness Report 2000-2001," which ranked Taiwan fifth on a list of the world's best areas in terms of economic prospects and competitiveness, ahead of Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and the UK. In the survey by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, China placed 39th.
In terms of scientific development, Taiwan ranked fourth against 52nd for China, Chen said.
"All these surveys debunk widespread claims that China is a place better than Taiwan for doing business," he said.
Although there is always room for improvement in Taiwan's investment climate, Chen said, "our people should never lose faith in our own country."
Chen said that he told the Associated Press in an interview on Friday that he would ask China's President Jiang Zemin (
One of the questions was why followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement can preach their belief freely in Taiwan but are forbidden to do so in China? The second question was: Will China follow in Taiwan's footsteps in democracy, allowing different political parties to govern in turn?
Chen said he posed the latter question to stress that Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy. Democracy is Taiwan's proudest achievement, he told AP.
"In democracy as well as in economic potentiality, China isn't our match at all," Chen said.
He repeated his call for a higher government efficiency by halving the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan. The Executive Yuan should be reduced by a third, he said.
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