With regard to public concern about the nation's income distribution and the gap between the rich and poor, the Executive Yuan today stated that promoting social mobility and helping people in the middle to lower strata of society emerge from dire financial straits is of utmost importance to social development. The administration will continue to promote various policies that will help improve income distribution.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford pointed out that in finance and taxation measures, the administration has implemented various policies of current transfers to reduce income disparity. This effort has produced evident results: 2013 statistics showed the disparity in household disposable income dropping from 7.53 times before implementation of these policies to 6.08 times afterward, demonstrating their importance.
In terms of wages, National Development Council Minister Duh Tyzz-jiun stated that annual real wage growth registered 2.36 percent in 2014, the highest figure in the past several years, thanks to the administration's policies and enterprises' collaboration with the government's promotion of wage hikes. This demonstrates that the economic turnaround, coupled with policy promotion and private-sector cooperation in raising salaries, has helped increase income.
Besides providing subsidies to low-income earners, the Executive Yuan has since 2014 promoted a social enterprise development action plan in the hope that such social enterprises will help these individuals to sharpen their skills to earn better wages, Duh pointed out.
Education and sharpening competitive skills and technologies are fundamental solutions to unequal distribution of income, Duh noted. Although adjusting industrial infrastructure and raising products' added value will also help create more earnings, progress must be made in various aspects to address both the symptoms and the causes of unequal distribution of wealth. The administration will continue to promote various relevant policies to this end.