President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ambition to create a plan for a “golden decade” (黃金十年計畫) will be nothing but a slogan if the nation’s financial structure is not fixed in time, experts told a forum on the president’s proposal yesterday.
Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said that since it came into office in May 2008, Ma’s administration had appeared to confuse slogans with policies and that it had difficulty making good on its promises.
“It keeps feeding Taiwanese pacifiers when what the latter really needs is milk,” he said.
“When [the government] cannot deliver, it comes up with yet another slogan,” Chen told the forum, titled “Slogan? Policy? Whose Golden Decade?”
Chen said he wondered whether the golden decade would suffer the same fate as Ma’s “6-3-3” economic plan, which stands for 6 percent GDP growth per year, a per capita income of US$30,000 and an unemployment rate lower than 3 percent by 2012.
Chen said that while it was not his intention to accuse Ma’s administration of fabricating figures, calculations for GDP growth were more complex than they seemed. His own calculations, based on official data, showed that the administration had overestimated the national income by NT$1.14 trillion (US$39.18 billion) and that such growth was thus obtained at the cost of debt and deficits, he said.
“As the golden decade plan is based on a wrong perception, it is hard to imagine it will be successful,” he said.
Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), a professor of economics at National Central University, said he was disappointed by Ma’s failure to unveil details of his golden decade plan during his New Year address on Saturday.
While the administration boasts of economic growth, the public is unlikely to feel the benefits of economic recovery if the problem of the wealth gap is not addressed, Chiou said.
The administration also hopes to cooperate with China in the six emerging industries, as Ma has proposed, but here again the president did not present any concrete proposals and it is unlikely national coffers could accommodate the development of such industries, Chiou said.
Whether Chinese firms would want to cooperate with their Taiwanese counterparts if Taiwan has little to offer in these areas remains in doubt, he said.
“Healthy government finances is the foundation of all government projects,” he said. “However, the Ma administration has already borrowed more money than the Democratic Progressive Party did in the eight years it was in power,” Chiou said.
“The current government does not have healthy finances. How does it expect to create a golden decade?” he asked.
Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮), a professor of finance at National Taipei University, said the administration could not expect to make the golden decade a reality if it continued to borrow money.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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