Taichung, Taiwan, May 29 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian defended his policy Thursday of increasing the public debt to finance infrastructure construction as generating future assets and giving the nation promise.
Calling the program an investment in Taiwan's future, Chen said during a visit to an optics firm in the central Taiwan county of Taichung that floating state bonds to raise funds for public construction projects should not be distorted as "leaving debts for posterity."
On the contrary, Chen said, the program will greatly benefit future generations.
Chen said some opposition politicians have accused the government of having borrowed too much money. As a matter of fact, he explained, Taiwan's public debt is by no means excessively high. "Even if the total amount of state bonds issued this year reaches the ceiling of 15 percent of the government's annual expenditure budget as set in the Public Debt Law, our outstanding public debt remain low in comparison with many other countries," Chen said.
Quoting the latest statistics compiled by the Central Bank of China, Chen said the Republic of China government's outstanding debt accounts for 33.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). "This ratio is far lower than the United States' 60.7 percent, Germany's 62.4 percent, Singapore's 110.7 percent and Japan's 142.7 percent," Chen said.
Against this backdrop, Chen went on, the government still has room to issue state bonds to raise funds for major infrastructure construction projects, such as a mass rapid transit (MRT) system linking Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) International Airport -- Taiwan's main gateway -- to downtown Taipei. "We should have faith in Taiwan and should invest more to boost its development, " Chen said, adding that his administration has decided to step up public investment to rev up the domestic economy in the wake of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Noting that certain sectors, such as the tourism and hotel industries, have been hit hard by the SARS outbreak, Chen said the government will begin a series of stimulus measures to buoy the economy.
Chen said that although opposition parties have repeatedly painted a bleak picture of the Taiwan economy, the nation has actually outperformed many other countries in terms of GDP growth.
In Chen's personal online weekly newsletter posted Thursday, Chen also defended his administration's plan to float more state bonds to raise funds for the CKS MRT project. He likened "expanding public debt for public construction" to "using a golden egg to breed a golden hen, " saying that government investment will create jobs and offer opportunities for ordinary people.