Premier Sean Chen said in an Executive Yuan meeting today that all regulations should be transparent, clear, and convenient to check, and rationalization is an essential element of regulatory relaxation.
"In particular, the regulations regarding the recruitment and residence of foreign professionals should be thoroughly reviewed. We should offer them a friendly business environment while not influencing domestic laborers' rights," Premier Chen noted after listening to the Council for Economic Planning and Development's (CEPD) report on regulatory relaxation and adjustment, which covered the government's recent results, reviews and programs in this area.
The premier suggested the CEPD strengthen the functions and utilization of its deregulation forum, such as by coordinating with similar forums established by other ministries, deliberating citizen suggestions submitted to other ministries but not yet properly studied, or taking on tasks which require interministerial cooperation.
According to the CEPD report, in the latest evaluation around 60 percent of ministries suggested not to relax the regulations they are in charge of. Premier Chen said that although some ministries came to this conclusion out of consideration for the overall system, the high ratio revealed the ministries' conservative attitudes.
"Therefore, establishing the forum is very important," he emphasized. "It can collect suggestions from various fields and decrease reluctance for deregulation." Agencies currently submit reports on regulatory relaxation every six months, but in the future they need only post their latest developments on the CEPD platform as they occur, and the CEPD can sort out this information anytime, the premier said.
In their 2011 Leader's Declaration, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economic leaders agreed to strengthen the implementation of good regulatory practices with a view to "developing, using or strengthening mechanisms for assessing the impact of regulations," noted Chen. He instructed the CEPD and the Executive Yuan's Legal Affairs Committee to study the regulations and concrete measures of relevant countries and organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union, to see whether Taiwan's current measures are compatible with international society's regulatory impact analysis (RIA) mechanisms.
"Proper balance is very important," Chen said. "Consider the rules for different sports. They should allow competition to proceed smoothly while making it more exciting. Likewise, the government should not be too rigid when enacting regulations.
"If any ministries or commissions encounter difficulties while making legal adjustments, they should report to the Executive Yuan," he added.
Taiwan's rankings for economic freedom in surveys by the International Institute for Management Development, World Economic Forum and American Heritage Foundation have been on the rise in recent years, the CEPD said.
Of note, in the World Bank's Doing Business report released in October this year, Taiwan was ranked 16th among 185 economies with regard to the ease of doing business, up from No. 61 in 2008. In the category of starting a business, Taiwan rose from No. 119 to No. 16 in that time, and in ease of dealing with construction permits it jumped from No. 127 to No. 9. In the category of protecting investors, the country moved from No. 70 to No. 32, while in paying taxes it advanced from No. 100 to No. 54. This indicates that Taiwan's achievements in promoting related regulatory reforms over the past four years have won world recognition, the premier said.
One major accomplishment, the CEPD said, is that the government's agencies and commissions have reached consensus on the following regulatory reforms to improve Taiwan's industrial structure: attracting more foreign and overseas Chinese students to study in Taiwan; directing insurance capital toward investment in infrastructure; and streamlining the procedure of issuing visas for Chinese businessmen. Basic rules and regulations regarding talents, finances, investment and business environment have also been relaxed to facilitate business operations.
The CEPD highlighted the following key areas for internationalization through deregulation:
- Talents: Facilitating international professionals' immigration to and residence in Taiwan, businesses' recruitment of foreign talents, and mainland businessmen and professionals' visits to the island
- Finance: The Financial Supervisory Commission has implemented measures to enhance cross-strait financial exchange, relax restrictions on financial institutions' investments, increase listing of overseas Taiwanese enterprises on Taiwan's stock exchanges and loosen caps on securities companies' investments denominated in foreign currency.
- Investment: To attract foreign investors, previously mandatory recognition registration procedures for foreign companies will be removed, while review process of and limits to overseas Taiwanese businesses' investments are also streamlined.
The CEPD also pointed out an array of measures that have enhanced the ease of doing business in Taiwan:
- Providing online registration for new enterprises; over 30,000 such applications have already been processed.
- Shortening Taipei City's construction permit application process by providing single-window service for buildings five stories or lower. According to the World Bank, the number of steps in the permit process has decreased from 29 to 11, and the average number of days has been shortened from 193 to 94, hence Taiwan's rise from No. 127 to No. 9 in this respect.
- Offering more convenient ways for businesses to file and pay income taxes and automobile fuel fees to be paid online.
- Amending the Company Act and the Securities and Exchange Act to better protect investors.