Premier Jiang Yi-huah urged various government agencies to work toward improving implementation capacity and efficiency at today's Cabinet meeting in response to the recent release of the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development's 2013 World Competitiveness Yearbook, which ranked Taiwan No. 11 among 60 major economies, a fall from last year, when it was No. 7.
"The Council for Economic Planning and Development's analysis shows that Taiwan's retrogression can be partly attributed to the poor global economy," Jiang said. "However, the government still needs to conduct a humble self-examination and proactively improve in areas where it has fallen behind," said Premier Jiang.
Taiwan fell in each of the IMD report's four main factors: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. "These phenomena demand our attention," asserted the premier.
From 1997 to 2008, Taiwan placed between No. 11 and No. 20 in the rankings; after slipping to No. 23 in 2009, it surged to No. 8 in 2010, the first time it entered the top-10 list, indicated Jiang, who also pointed out that from a long-term perspective, its rankings over the past four years place it in the leading group of economies.
"Taiwan's rankings go up and down each year, so we should not panic just because this year we dropped four places," he said. "Whether our rankings rise or fall, however, each government agency should carefully examine the country's performance in areas where it has responsibility and humbly do its best to make improvements.
"We should pay attention to our performance in every indicator rather than just looking at the overall ranking, and we should not just check whether a country does better than before but also compare its progress with other countries'. As the saying goes, 'He who does not advance loses ground.' If our improvement is not great enough, we will be surpassed by other countries which improve even more."
In response to the downturn of the international economy, the government has put forward several economic stimulus packages since last year, noted the premier.
"The public is generally affirmative of the direction of the government's policies for improving national competitiveness. However, it doubts whether the government can implement these plans. A good government should possess not only an excellent ability to plan and communicate but also the capability to implement, which is what the public most hopes to see."
Urging all agencies to emphasize implementation capability and efficiency, he said the state's various measures and mid- and long-term projects should be completed on time or even ahead of schedule so that Taiwanese people can feel their positive effects and the government's determination.