Economic development remains at the top of the government's policy agenda, said Premier Jiang Yi-huah at a business forum held today by the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development (CICD).
"Despite economic difficulties at home and abroad, I am convinced that the Taiwanese people—with their smarts and hard work—will be able to overcome any challenge to strengthen Taiwan's industries and build a better life for the next generation," Jiang stressed.
The international economic climate has not been very favorable to Taiwan lately, noted Premier Jiang. Major economies such as the United States, the European Union, mainland China and Japan have been beleaguered by financial or fiscal problems, which in turn have dampened economic recovery in many other countries. Domestically, Taiwan's traditional industries are also facing intense competition from third-world countries, whose relatively low labor and land costs have created great advantages in mass production. To strengthen its competitiveness, indicated the premier, Taiwan must transform its industries, add more value to products, and achieve a breakthrough in key technologies.
"Today's forum allows for closer, two-way communication between the government and the people, and this is important because public support is the greatest foundation of government," remarked Jiang. "If the administration works in earnest to listen to people from different fields and takes action to solve their problems, it will surely create prosperity for the country and earn the support of all."
The premier said he brought along his administration team today so that they can hear people's needs and expectations first-hand. If it is within the team's means to meet such expectations—whether in economics, infrastructure or any other area of national development—they will do so promptly. If not, they should explain to the people what difficulties or bottlenecks are hindering them.
One of the issues raised by the forum participants concerns the development of the cultural creative industry. Jiang said that the government is already promoting cultural creativity as one of the six emerging industries targeted for development. He has also directed the Executive Yuan's ministers without portfolio and the National Development Council to keep a keen eye on this sector and push for growth.
Other matters mentioned included enhancing personnel training through cloud-computing technologies, regulations to protect small and medium-sized enterprises from illegal practices by employees, and problems in the traditional chiropractic and physiotherapy occupations. The Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Welfare were asked to respond to these three matters respectively. For all of the issues raised today, the premier instructed ministries to have concrete responses for the CICD within one month.
Lastly, Jiang agreed with CICD Chairman Lei Tsu-kang's call for an early reorganization of the Council of Agriculture into a ministry-level agency. Jiang said he hoped the organizational act for the new ministry would be approved at the Legislative Yuan's next session.