The government hosted a National Economic Development Conference over the weekend and brought together industry, officialdom and academia to diagnose and heal Taiwan's economic woes. But the process of the conference and its conclusions reached therein -- as well as the possibilities of implementing them -- gives no cause for optimism. The TAIEX fell by 107 points yesterday, a clear indication that investors did not see a promising result from the conference.
The economic conference was meant to be an opportunity for conciliation between the political parties -- and for partisan cooperation in revitalizing the economy. But the government announced its decision to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant immediately after the Lien-Chen meeting. The atmosphere of partisan cooperation gave way to partisan conflict. The KMT's and PFP's boycott of the economic conference is a sign that they may continue to oppose the implementation of conclusions reached at the conference.
Since it took power in March, the DPP government has held several major financial and economic conferences, including one on taxation and another on knowledge-based economy. But we have not seen any concrete results from these two conferences. That was why "Oh! Yet another conference!" was the first thought that came to mind when one heard the news about the latest one.
Despite the boycott by opposition parties, lukewarm participation by industry, complex topical discussions and a paucity of consensus, the conference still managed to come up with some conclusions. A few of them were: to simplify the corporate merger process, ease restrictions on investments in China, encourage local governments to attract investments, and to shorten the review procedure for major investment and development projects.
As evident at the conference, both business circles and scholars are expecting the government to loosen the "no haste, be patient" policy. At a sensitive time for cross-strait relations, we believe the government should carefully evaluate this issue. Specifically, it may not be appropriate to open up the high-tech sectors recklessly, given Taiwan's reliance on them and global strategic considerations.
Even when loosening restrictions on investment in China, Taiwan should pursue a spirit of "effective management" and keep the R&D, management and financial departments of Taiwanese businesses in the country.
Even though the government had earlier stressed a knowledge-based economy as a key area for economic development, we did not see any focused discussion in this area during the conference. The government's definition of infrastructure construction remained limited to utilities and road construction. It has not extended to the foundation of a knowledge-based economy, such as fiberoptic networks and satellite channels. This wrong focus may cause the development of Taiwan's knowledge-based economy to lag even farther behind.
The results of the conference have shown that the country's fundamental economic and political conditions will not change any time soon. What the government can do now is to work on administrative measures and improve efficiency -- tasks that do not require legislation or amendments. After letting society feel its sincere wish to salvage the economy, the government can then force the opposition to cooperate. We would also like to remind the opposition parties that we are all on the same boat called Taiwan. Beijing stands to benefit the most if the political parties are not able to pull together and cooperate to revitalize the economy.
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