President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that he would not relax the 40 percent cap on investment in China, although Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) suggested easing the regulations on Monday.
Chen said "active management, effective opening" has been his administration's cross-strait economy policy and would remain so.
"There is room for discussion about certain isolated cases, as long as they do not violate the principle," he said. "However, such a fundamental policy will not change, at least not during my term. Nor will the 40 percent investment cap in China."
Hsieh proposed four strategies -- a wider opening to global capital, including investment from China; granting amnesty to facilitate the return of capital previously remitted out of the country via underground or illegal channels; lowering the tax on inherited property and gifts to below 10 percent to encourage the wealthy to keep their money in Taiwan; and adjusting the 40 percent ceiling on investment in China on a case-by-case basis.
Chen said he respects Hsieh's opinion and discussed the issue with him.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), however, expressed strong opposition to easing the 40 percent investment cap yesterday, saying that Hsieh's proposal was designed to embrace a "great China" economic development plan.
He also opposed the 18 to 24-month "grace period" Hsieh proposed for capital remittances.
When fielding questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Hwang Liang-hua (黃良華) on the legislative floor yesterday, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said he "generally" agreed with Hsieh's proposal, but the government would need time to come up with a complete set of policies.
Hwang said many Taiwanese businesspeople had doubts about Hsieh's proposal and wondered why the government could not ease investment restrictions sooner.
Chang told him that it was difficult to relax the regulations because there was no national consensus on the issue and that China had suspended cross-strait negotiations.
"This is the reality now," Chang said. "We cannot say whether [Hsieh's proposals] will work after he wins the people's support to become the president next year."
"This still depends on how the two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait interact with each other," Chang said.
Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said the official record showed that Taiwanese investment in China over the past seven years amounts to between NT$40 billion (US$1.2 billion) and NT$50 billion.
"What we need to consider is how to strike a balance between investment in China and safeguarding national security. That is why we have the cap," Chen Ming-tong said.
"We welcome Chinese investors if they are simply making investments in Taiwan. But everyone knows that China usually embeds political goals in its cross-strait economic policies," he said.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS