Taipei, Dec. 26 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Friday relevant government agencies should adopt more effective measures to fuel an across-the-board economic recovery in order to further lower the unemployment rate.
Chen made the directives at a meeting of the president's economic advisory panel headed by Vincent Siew.
Chen said even though the nation's unemployment rate has continued its downward streak in November, the number of jobless people remains large. "Relevant government agencies should continue its current job-creation programs and work out even more effective measures to enhance the intensity of domestic economic recovery and create more job," Chen said.
During the meeting, Chen also said he hopes the nation's overall investment in research and development can be raised to 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2006. All responsible government agencies should formulate detailed measures to realize this goal.
To cope with a steady decline in the population growth rate, Chen said, tertiary education institutions should formulate an academic mechanism and courses that are suitable for lifelong learning to meet the high demand for trained professionals under the current knowledge-based economy.
The government should also encourage and promote transformation of government-funded universities into independent institutions to allow for more flexibility and access to more resources, Chen said.
Noting that the government has set 2004 as the year for tourism promotion, Chen said responsible government agencies should pool resources with the private sector in promoting domestic travel and attracting foreign tourists.
Chen also called on Beijing to respond to Taiwan's goodwill in opening its door to mainland Chinese tourists. "We hope mainland China can lift its ban on its people's leisure trips to Taiwan," Chen said, adding that Taiwan's responsible agencies should step up negotiations with mainland authorities to pay the way for ordinary mainland citizens to make sightseeing trips to this island.
Meanwhile, Chen stressed the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. "IPR protection is our obligations following our entry to the World Trade Organization and will also benefit our industrial upgrading. We must further revise our copyrights law and institutionalize the IPR investigative police team and mete out harsher punishment to copyrights violators," he added.