The Executive Yuan’s latest project to boost the economy has “missed the point” and looked like a hastily formulated plan that failed to address both short and long-term problems, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
“The real stimulus for Taiwan’s stagnant domestic economy would be the promotion of domestic investment, but the Executive Yuan’s project, which was announced on Tuesday, did not present a solution,” Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), convener of the DPP’s economic strategy task force, told a press conference.
Persistent capital outflow to China, a result of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s pro-China policy, and diminishing foreign investment is the root cause of Taiwan’s economic stagnation, Wu said.
While the Ma administration vowed to join regional economic integration by joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership in eight years and pursuing free-trade agreements with major trade partners, Beijing remains the primary roadblock, he said.
Academia Sinica researcher Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) said the administration either failed to identify the reasons for the slow economy or did not want to face the problem.
The “massive, but fragmented” project has ignored urgent short-term issues, such as the troubled touch panel and DRAM industries, and how to revamp the industrial structure to promote long-term growth as the overseas production rate for Taiwanese industry hits 50.2 percent.
Shih said that the Ma administration has underestimated the importance of the manufacturing sector, which would see significant production output and create job opportunities if it were upgraded and moved up the value chain.
Ma’s use of the “global economic climate” as an excuse has been disappointing, China Affairs Department Director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) said.
Public debt of more than NT$5 trillion (US$168.87 billion) meant the administration was short of policy tools to stimulate the economy, he said, adding that the situation has worsened due to “the tie-up in the cross-strait economy.”
Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the executive director of the DPP’s Policy Research Committee, said that the Cabinet led by Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) was now a “zombie Cabinet” that has no clue what to do about Taiwan’s economy.
“It is ironic that Chen was a well-respected economist and his Cabinet has always taken pride in its economic expertise, pledging that the administration would ‘enrich the Taiwanese people’ when the Cabinet members were sworn in in February,” he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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