The government is to announce a detailed agricultural policy proposal as part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) “new southbound policy” by the end of this year, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday.
The new southbound policy, proposed by Tsai during last year’s election campaign, aims to improve relations with Southeast Asian countries to reduce economic dependence on China and create opportunities for Taiwanese businesses in the region and India.
Chen’s comments came in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), a member of the Legislative Yuan’s Economic Committee, who asked Chen to submit details of the council’s plans.
Chen said Southeast Asian countries want to develop their agricultural production capabilities, which is expected to generate strong demand for Taiwan’s agricultural technologies.
The government’s role is to help organize Taiwanese enterprises integrate their efforts in research and development, technical advisory and marketing to “form a cohesive team,” Chen said.
Huang also asked how the government would protect the rights of Taiwanese investors when implementing the policy.
Chen said the government would need to represent Taiwanese interests by setting overall direction and goals in multilateral cooperation via state-to-state negotiations, while readying the integration of Taiwanese enterprises for their moves to Southeast Asia.
However, Huang questioned whether the government has been moving fast enough.
“If we have to wait half a year for the government to begin implementing its plans, will we not find that the four years [of Tsai’s term] are already behind us?” he said.
Chen said that as implementation is dependent on the cooperation of Southeast Asian governments, some necessary delays are to be expected.
Huang said that, if that is the case, the proposal remains “a rainbow in the sky” and demanded the council make greater efforts to “propose a concrete timeline for taking real action” to push Taiwan’s economic policy forward.
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