For years the government has struggled and floundered with bureaucratic and poorly managed state-run enterprises, most of which are in the red year after year. President Chen Shui-bian (
Indeed, the success in turning around some of the state-run enterprises deserves some applause. For decades, state-run enterprises lacked the flexibility, innovation and profit motive of private companies. Their operations were also tightly restricted by law. Their employees, almost civil servants, received annual bonuses regardless of whether their firms were profitable or not, and often appeared unmotivated.
In view of the worldwide recession, the fact that all eight remaining state-run enterprises under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance turned a profit last year is proof of the government's determination and commitment to overhauling these firms despite the extremely painful and long restructuring process.
For example, in 1991 China Shipbuilding lost about NT$3.62 billion, with its net loss more than twice that of the previous year. By last year, however, the company had a net profit of NT$350 million. This result came at a hefty price. As many as 47 percent of its employees were laid off, while those who stayed had to take a 35 percent pay cut. Tang End Iron Works, which earned NT$400 million last year had to downsize its construction division and sell off some other non-profitable divisions.
The finance ministry had planned to complete the privatization of state-run enterprises by releasing the government's shares in these companies for public trading by the end of this year. At present only China Shipbuilding and Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp are set to complete their privatizations on schedule. The privatization of the others will be delayed. Chen has reiterated his determination that the entire privatization process will become more public and transparent in order to avoid the controversies that surrounded First Financial Holding Co's sale of new shares in the form of global depositary receipts to overseas investors.
Chen has three messages about the revamping of state-run enterprises that he wants to get across to the public. First, despite the criticism of those with vested interests and skepticism about the less-than-ideal progress reports on his administration, Chen is trying to indicate that rewards await those with patience and commitment to reforms. Second, his talk about privatization and the market mechanism aligns with a major theme of his reelection campaign, which is reform and democracy. Third, he is trying give the public a sense of hope and confidence toward both him and the future of this country under his leadership.
This is obviously done in response to the pan-blue's campaign strategy, which is to depict a general sense of dissatisfaction, pessimism and hopelessness about the present state of affairs and the future of the nation under the DPP's rule. Which will work? Only time will tell.
As Taiwan’s domestic political crisis deepens, the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have proposed gutting the country’s national spending, with steep cuts to the critical foreign and defense ministries. While the blue-white coalition alleges that it is merely responding to voters’ concerns about corruption and mismanagement, of which there certainly has been plenty under Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and KMT-led governments, the rationales for their proposed spending cuts lay bare the incoherent foreign policy of the KMT-led coalition. Introduced on the eve of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the KMT’s proposed budget is a terrible opening
“I compare the Communist Party to my mother,” sings a student at a boarding school in a Tibetan region of China’s Qinghai province. “If faith has a color,” others at a different school sing, “it would surely be Chinese red.” In a major story for the New York Times this month, Chris Buckley wrote about the forced placement of hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children in boarding schools, where many suffer physical and psychological abuse. Separating these children from their families, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to substitute itself for their parents and for their religion. Buckley’s reporting is
Last week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), together holding more than half of the legislative seats, cut about NT$94 billion (US$2.85 billion) from the yearly budget. The cuts include 60 percent of the government’s advertising budget, 10 percent of administrative expenses, 3 percent of the military budget, and 60 percent of the international travel, overseas education and training allowances. In addition, the two parties have proposed freezing the budgets of many ministries and departments, including NT$1.8 billion from the Ministry of National Defense’s Indigenous Defense Submarine program — 90 percent of the program’s proposed
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
RSS