Outgoing Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) yesterday said he hopes Minister of economic affairs-designate Lee Chih-kung (李世光) will help increase competitiveness in local industries and boost exports.
“The declining international demand for Taiwan’s goods was one of the obstacles during my term,” Deng said after a farewell party for him and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭), who retired yesterday after 37 years.
Deng said he believes Lee and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) would help local industries to upgrade and transform their operations amid the uncertain outlook of the global economy. It is also important for the new government to communicate more with industries and provide a stable investment environment in Taiwan.
During Deng’s more than one-year term, the ministry proposed the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) and amended the Company Act (公司法) to help the development of business start-ups.
The ministry also amended the Water Act and introduced a new electricity price formula to ease political interference, but it has failed to continue the negotiations of a trade-in-goods agreement with China and allowed Chinese investments in local IC design companies during Deng’s term.
The issues of the cross-strait trade in goods pact and the Chinese investments in local IC designers are to be left to Lee and the public, Deng said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
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