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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS