President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pledged yesterday that his administration would seek to simplify visa application procedures for Chinese citizens to encourage more arrivals from China.
Ma said that the government had already eased restrictions on visits by Chinese tourists, lowering the requirement for the minimum number of people in a single tour group from 10 to five.
The president made the remarks during an investor forum, held jointly by the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the brokerage house Merrill Lynch, at which two Chinese investors complained about the lengthy procedures involved for Chinese to visit Taiwan.
Regarding the government’s efforts to improve Taiwan’s business environment, Ma said his administration would work to diversify the industrial sector, upgrade the country’s infrastructure and promote the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement with China to make Taiwan more internationalized and show the world that “Taiwan is still very important.”
He said Taiwan plans to pursue an economic agreement with China and seek free-trade agreements with other countries.
The government will also seek to boost exports, stimulate domestic demand and speed up deregulation, he said.
Ma also said the government doesn’t plan to inject funds to bail out ailing companies even as the nation’s US$23.6 billion memory-chip industry faces record losses.
The government “won’t rescue individual companies and instead hopes to boost the industry’s competitiveness through integration and help the industry develop its own intellectual property rights,” Ma said.
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