The Cabinet has achieved two of the three goals for the economy set by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) — reducing unemployment and boosting economic growth — officials said yesterday.
However, Chen did not deliver on his vow, made in 2004, to raise overall expenditure on research and development-related sectors to more than 3 percent of GDP within three years, the officials said.
Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairwoman Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) and Deputy Minister of National Science Council Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) presented reports on the government’s performance over the past eight years at the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Wu said overall expenditure on research and development-related sectors went up from 1.98 percent in 1999 to 2.58 percent in 2006.
“Although the government increased budgets earmarked for technology development each year, the growth rate was limited by the legislature. The proposed budget was cut by 8.7 percent in 2005 and another 7.9 percent in 2006,” Wu told a press conference following the meeting.
While seeking re-election in 2004, Chen vowed to expand the technology budget, to cut unemployment to below 4 percent within two years and to boost economic growth to above 5 percent in a year.
“The government’s pursuit of economic revitalization through a series of economic measures produced concrete results. The country has achieved stable economic growth. We saw a significant increase in private investment and a record high in foreign investment,” Chang said.
Chang said 909,000 jobs were created since the Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2000. For its part, unemployment went down to 3.9 percent, a record low in the past seven years.
Of the jobs created, 665,000 were filled by women, bringing the labor force participation rate to 49.4 percent, a record high, Chang said.
The country’s average economic growth for the past seven years was 4.1 percent, with an average of 5.23 percent in the last four years — higher than South Korea’s 4.7 percent, Chang said.
Twenty-nine multinationals set up 36 research and development centers since 2002, with investment in Taiwan up to NT$33 billion (US$1.08 billion), Chang said.
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