Clean up financial markets
With Taiwan's first quarter GDP at 1.06 percent, it beats me how, and on what economic factors, does the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statis-tics base its forecast for an annual GDP growth rate of 4.02 percent for fiscal year 2002?
I think Taiwan is in a recession. Though much has been said about increasing public expenditure, especially with regards to the NT$810 billion public investment package, nothing was mentioned about how and to which industrial sectors the government is going to allocate the budget!
There is no blueprint at all for such expenditure. Besides, with the government's debt standing at NT$2.6 trillion -- not including losses by state enterprises which could bring the overall government debt to about NT$5 trillion -- how is the government going to raise funds to finance such a budget? (Oh, don't forget the monthly NT$3,000 allow-ances for the elderly.) Bearing this in mind, I cannot help but ask if the government is trying to bluff its people.
I do not see any economic rebound in Taiwan, at least for the next three and a half years if the government fails to face the roots of the economic problems and start dealing with them. Financial markets reflect the economy's health. Constant intervention in the markets just to prop-up the value of shares artificially does more harm than good to the economy.
The Ministry of Finance, knowing there are serious problems facing the financial industry, has not done anything to really clean up unethical practices that have been going on since the previous government.
Unauthorized trading in both the stocks and futures markets has been going on since 1995 when Taiwan officially legalized commodities futures trading. Licensed futures trading companies are encouraging account executives to churn customers' accounts for brokerage fees. This is one area of unethical financial practice which the Securities and Exchange Commission is fully aware of and yet does nothing about!
If the government is really interested in improving business conditions to attract foreign investment, then it should seize the opportunity to demonstrate its sincerity to foreign investors by getting rid of unethical business practices in the financial industry.
Michael Teo
London, England
Japan reforms are no change
The reforms in Japan focus on the privatization of the postal system, which is actually perfectly effective as it is. The issue obscures the new government's failure to reform anything, other than to appoint a number of women to positions in the Cabinet. But, whether it is women or men who kowtow to Beijing and repeat the same public spending policies of the past, the same bureaucracy retains the same controls over Japan's economy. The privatization of the postal system simply adds another private fiefdom to the already cluttered field of private holdings in Japan, which really do not compete with anyone at all. This not only defeats the object of reform but simply takes away one more state service from Japan. This is not public service but public disservice. Perhaps the new prime minister can prevent such foolishness?
Eric Hands
Seattle, Washington
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