"Asian Strategy" key in economic growth: Tsai

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 28, 2006. It reports that according to Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's economic relations with China need to be developed with an overall "Asian Strategy" in order to control risk and maintain competitiveness.

Tsai currently heads the government's economic and financial policy task force. In her view, current priorities of the government include maintaining microeconomic stability in the face of rising crude oil prices, maintaining overall price stability, improving the government's fiscal situation, continuing tax reform, and promoting major public and private construction projects in order to spur investment.

According to Tsai, the government aims to continue to boost its financial supervisory capability in order to allow the market to operate as freely as possible. The government's public and private sector advisory council will also focus on building consensus on how to resolve the issues that Taiwan faces in its next stage of economic growth. These issues include the construction of a comprehensive social security system, the establishment of measures to maintain sustainable economic competitiveness, and the formation of an overall external economic strategy or "Asian Strategy" for long-term global positioning.

"To face the next stage of development, we must consider cross-strait economic and trade relations within a larger context and a longer-term view," Tsai said. While Taiwan's economic relations with China are part of the government's overall economic policy, they also involve cross-strait politics which are extremely complex in nature. In other words, when people talk about cross-strait policy, they need to understand that the underlying issue is how Taiwan's economy can face the challenge of the economic rise of China.

In this sense, the rise of Southeast Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern economics offers Taiwan more opportunities and more sources of competition than China. The conditions for diversifying Taiwan's offshore investments and trade patterns are also better when compared to those 10 years ago. While Taiwanese enterprises are now capable of expanding abroad and controling risks, infrastructure in Southeast Asia and South Asia is also more developed and therefore posts less costs to Taiwanese companies.

According to Tsai, a high priority for the government's economic policy lies in creating jobs. Another priority is to consider what kind of new energy policy Taiwan might need for its next stage of economic growth. This includes the nation's energy needs, stability of supply sources, sustainable alternatives and resource management.