President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday played up the economy, saying it has improved and unemployment has dropped, while dismissing criticism that his administration paid more attention to economic growth than job creation.
Ma said the economic growth rate this year was estimated at 9.98 percent and unemployment dropped to 4.92 percent last month, adding that about 250,000 more jobs were created compared with the same period last year.
“Some have criticized [the Ma administration, saying] that we pay more attention to economic growth than unemployment,” Ma said at a forum with representatives of labor unions in Taipei yesterday. “But how can we create jobs if there is no economic growth?”
Ma said some people couldn’t increase their incomes even if there were job opportunities, adding that is when the government should step in to assist low-income families.
Ma said his administration took a two-pronged approach to address the economic problem. First was to improve the economy and second was to better allocate resources to take care of disadvantaged groups.
To that end, Ma said amendments to the Social Assistance Act (社會救助法) had passed their first reading at the legislature and once they cleared the floor, the eligibility requirements for public assistance would be relaxed, which would raise the poverty line.
Ma said the bill would benefit an estimated 850,000 people by raising the percentage of low-income households from 1.14 percent to 3.38 percent.
Ma also praised the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that Taipei and Beijing signed in June, saying the first phase of the early harvest program would create about 60,000 jobs once it comes into force in January.
It is also projected to generate NT$190 billion (US$6.2 billion) in output value, including NT$30 billion from Taipei County, he said.
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