On the morning of October 12 at the Presidential Office, President Ma Ying-jeou chaired the fourth in a series of press conferences to explain his eight visions for a "golden decade" for the nation. The topic centered on the sixth vision, namely, "well-rounded development."
The president stated that "well-rounded development" is an amalgam of the five visions that he has already introduced, and constitutes a broad and comprehensive plan for the nation. President Ma said that "infrastructure," "shipping and aviation hubs," "convenient living," "regional balance," "sound fiscal policy," and "development of the financial services industry" constitute the six main policy focuses by which the government intends to strengthen the nation's tangible and intangible infrastructure. At the same time, ensuring fair and equal quality in basic public services throughout Taiwan, regardless of region, will help enhance the nation's overall competitiveness. This will help Taiwan to remake the nation and pursue excellence, he noted.
The following is the statement made by President Ma:
Today I will speak on the sixth vision of the "golden decade" blueprint, namely "well-rounded development." The meaning of this vision is somewhat different from the other visions I have discussed. The previous five visions—"a robust economy," "a just society," "clean and competent government," "high-quality culture and education," and "environmental sustainability"—all deal with specific sectors and topics within society. "Well-rounded development," however, is more comprehensive in scope, and the measures we take to achieve well-rounded development must dovetail with the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects."
When I first announced my idea for the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects" on November 29, 2007, it was to be an eight-year plan running to 2016. Today, the "well-rounded development" vision that I am going to discuss will be launched this year, and the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects” will of course be incorporated into it. "Well-rounded development" touches on infrastructure, fiscal policy, and other important areas.
Let's look at the meaning of the vision of "a robust economy" from a broader perspective. Our objective is to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership within 10 years, which is a very ambitious goal. Even though we haven't met certain conditions yet, we must make sure that we create these conditions and gradually move forward.
What will the completion of the "golden decade" initiative mean for us? Last year on the second anniversary of my inauguration, I mentioned the concept of a "golden decade," with the hope of achieving "a decade of peace," "a decade of development," and "a decade of wellbeing." The main focus of "a decade of development" is on updating or innovating the basic infrastructure that we need. In the 1970s we lost our representation in the United Nations and faced many frustrations on the diplomatic front. Former President Chiang Ching-kuo began to promote the "Ten Major Construction Projects." At that time, much of Taiwan's infrastructure was already decades old and was showing signs of age. Some infrastructure needed to be renovated, while other entirely new infrastructure projects were initiated, such as a freeway, an international airport, railroad electrification, and the creation of deep sea harbors. Some 30 years have passed since that time, and the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects," proposed by Vice President Vincent C. Siew, are being carried out in the same spirit. Work is still underway on some of these projects. For instance, widening of the Wugu-Yangmei section of National Freeway No.1 is scheduled for completion next year, as is the electrification and double-tracking of the Hualien-Taitung railway. Nonetheless, there are still many areas in which further efforts need to be made.
The first main policy focus under the vision of "well-rounded development" is "infrastructure," including water, electricity, and transportation. We hope to see two million households around Taiwan installed with smart electric meters within five years, and further hope that this number will increase to six million within 10 years. Also, while we are making every effort to pinpoint water pipes that leak, we are still seeing a leakage ratio of 20%. We have set a goal of reducing this ratio to 17% within five years and to 15% within the next decade. Reducing leakage is extremely important, and when I was Taipei City mayor I put heavy emphasis on this, which resulted in considerable improvements. I hope that this effort can be expanded to all of Taiwan, as I believe that this will play an important role in creating a society that is able to conserve water.
The percentage of households with hook-ups to sanitary sewers is lower in Taiwan than in some countries that are not even considered advanced nations. Under the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects," annual sewer system growth of 3% has been targeted. To this point, we are pretty much in line to meet this goal, and by the end of this year we expect 28-29% of the nation's households to be connected to sanitary sewer lines. We hope that this percentage will further rise to 39.8% within five years and 49.8% within 10 years. Presently, the integral sewage treatment rate is 56.4%, but we hope we can raise this to 69% within five years and 79% within 10 years. To be sure, many politicians aren't interested in this initiative, as they feel it isn't visible, yet is costly and results in great inconvenience to the public when sewer lines are constructed. However, this is an important indicator of a nation's progress and level of advancement.
During my tenure as Taipei City mayor, I deeply appreciated the focus of my predecessors Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Huang Ta-chou (黃大洲) on building up the city's sanitary sewer system. When Mayor Chen took over from Mayor Huang, the sanitary sewer hook-up ratio was 23%, and when I took over from Mayor Chen, the ratio was 41%. When my successor, Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), took over from me, the ratio had risen to 83%, and now it has surpassed 100%. How were we able to surpass 100%? This is because originally we figured that one household comprised four people, but now we tabulate one household as having three people, so we might have to knock off a few percentage points. Nonetheless, the ratio in Taipei City is still the highest in all of Taiwan. As a nation, however, we still lag behind advanced countries, for the nationwide hook-up ratio will only reach 50% by 2020. As a result, we really must work harder on this front. Taipei City allocated funds on its own for this initiative, but I am aware that many of Taiwan's cities and counties lack the funding required and will need financial assistance from the central government. This is extremely important work that has a bearing on the health of the public. Consequently, even if this infrastructure is not readily noticeable and costs a considerable amount, we still must build it.
Turning to the topic of building up Taiwan as a shipping and aviation hub, we will complete construction of Terminal 3 at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. This airport will serve as the core in a push to open up new domestic, cross-strait, and international routes, and will be supported in the effort by Taipei Songshan Airport, Kaohsiung International Airport, and Taichung Airport. As for shipping, it won't be easy for the Port of Kaohsiung to become one of the world's top 10 container ports, so it needs to develop contacts with second-tier ports in mainland China, thereby becoming a transshipment center for the mainland's second tier ports. With this in mind, we intend to build up the Kaohsiung International Container Terminal and have it drive development of an entire network of domestic harbors, including Keelung Harbor, Taichung Harbor, and Hualien Harbor. This will upgrade Taiwan's maritime shipping capabilities and help Taiwan become an East Asian transshipment hub. Taiwan sits in an advantageous position in the center of East Asia, giving it a natural advantage in its effort to become a shipping and aviation hub. We absolutely cannot neglect this potential.
The third policy focus under the vision of "well-rounded development" is "convenient living." When I proposed the "i-Taiwan 12 Projects," I put great emphasis on rail transportation, as it consumes far less energy than other types of public transport. This is why we are carrying out the electrification and double-tracking of bottleneck portions of the Hualien-Taitung rail line in eastern Taiwan. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has also adopted plans to expand this initiative to the stretch between Taitung and Chaozhou in Pingtung County. In the future, the railway network around the island will be more than just operational; it will also be rapid and comfortable. The MOTC has procured 136 tilting electric multiple units, which will make the railway even more efficient. Meanwhile, we hope that the percentage of the population served by rail transport will rise from the present 66% to 80%. The public transport utilization rate at present is just 13.9%, which shows that we are lagging in this aspect. In the eight years that I served as Taipei City mayor, I worked to get this rate for the city up to 50%. While the mass rapid transit system and the public bus system still fail to attract everyone away from their motorcycles or cars, we have seen some success. However, we have much more to do. Therefore, we want the public transport utilization rate to rise from the present 13.9% to 20%. We want mass rapid transit to be attractive enough so that people will choose it to get to work. This will cut commuting times to between 30 and 50 minutes, and will also help to reduce energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases.
The fourth policy focus under the vision of "well-rounded development" is “regional balance.” Many people query me: "Didn't you originally say you wanted three special municipalities and 15 counties? Presently there are five special municipalities. Have we ended up with more special municipalities than you were planning on?" I would just say that, regardless whether we have three or five special municipalities, the fact is that we have three major metropolitan areas in Taiwan. The key issue we need to focus on is how to ensure a balance among these areas. In northern Taiwan, we see the highest population density in Taipei City and New Taipei City. In the south we only have Kaohsiung City with a relative large population. This really doesn't point to a balance. In addition, Tainan has a special status in Taiwan's culture and history. This is the reason that we were happy to see Tainan upgraded to a special municipality. However, after this upgrading, efforts are needed to pull peripheral cities and counties into this metropolitan area. Tainan cannot just attend to its own needs; rather it must integrate with nearby cities and counties in order to generate the anticipated effects.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) already has a plan under which any area submitting an economic development plan that encourages integration with nearby areas will receive preferential screening and approval of its project. The CEPD is introducing a new "homes for industries, industries for homes" program —a huge flagship undertaking in which the CEPD has coordinated with counties and cities to find industries that are specifically suited to each to develop the industries. Recently I visited Dacheng Township in central Taiwan’s Changhua County, where people were strongly disappointed after the decision not to allow the construction of a petrochemical complex by Kuokuang Petrochemical. The northwest corner of this area is a windswept area near the ocean, where it has long been difficult to foster industry or agriculture. Yet despite these conditions, we need to find a developmental niche for the township that we can take as a model for other places. In other words, the central government will provide its full support and work with the local government to make a difference. Presently we have five special municipalities, and this number may increase to six. This means we will have six locomotives to drive the nation's competitiveness. This train is not only powerful, but also has staying power. Even counties and cities that aren't locomotives will be able to progress on the coattails of the special municipalities. This is an extremely important facet of our overall regional development initiative.
The fifth and sixth policy focuses under the vision of "well-rounded development" are "sound fiscal policy" and the "development of the financial services industry." Many people believe that the ROC is not in good fiscal health. To be sure, the government is still facing considerable fiscal challenges. The deficit of the central government budget, together with the special budget, stood at 3.5% of GDP in 2009 at the height of the financial tsunami. In 2010, the deficit fell to 3.0%, while in 2011 it will fall to 2.5%. We anticipate that the budget deficit will decline further to 1.6% in fiscal 2012, so the budget shortfalls are gradually being reduced. While the general outlook for the economy over the next five years isn't too good, we believe that we should still be able to post moderate growth. Under these circumstances, I believe that our fiscal situation should improve over time.
Everyone is aware that the business income tax rate has been cut to 17% from 25%, which reduces the burden on the corporate sector. At the same time, this is boosting our competitiveness. On another front, the Ministry of Finance is also reducing the taxes on public disposable income, with the tax rate on the three lowest tax brackets having been cut by one percentage point to 20%, 12%, and 5%. People should not look lightly upon this cut, as it constitutes a reduction in tax revenues from the public by over NT$20 billion. At the same time, the top of the lowest tax bracket has been raised from NT$410,000 to NT$500,000, which provides considerable assistance to middle-low income households. As our nation still faces fiscal challenges, we of course desire to continue to reduce the deficit in order to bring about a more sound fiscal situation. We also want to see reduced tax burdens on those making low salaries. At the same time, I hope that the tax structure will also be engineered to encourage energy conservation and reduction in carbon emissions.
During the financial tsunami, we introduced a temporary blanket guarantee for all bank deposits. Before that time, deposits were only protected up to a maximum of NT$1.5 million per account. We originally wanted to increase that amount to NT$3 million, but ultimately decided that we might as well cover all deposits. At the end of last year, the nation's banking system had returned to normal, and therefore the blanket guarantee was dropped and deposit insurance coverage limit was raised to NT$3 million per account. In the future, if there is another crisis of this sort, I am confident that we will be able to implement effective countermeasures.
Lastly, what exactly will it mean to our nation if we are able to achieve our overall goals? Our present hope is to reach the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which includes the United States, many countries in Europe and Asia, and a number of other advanced nations throughout the world. It cannot be denied that we have already surpassed OECD levels in certain areas. For instance, our unemployment rate and consumer price index are lower than the average of OECD member states. However, the average OECD member has per capita GDP of US$32,000, while last year we stood at only US$18,000. There is still room for improvement on this front. And there are other benchmarks besides economic metrics. OECD members on average have higher birth rates than we do, for example, which we also need to work on. I hope that Taiwan each year will see the birth of 180,000 children. Meanwhile, the average lifespan in Taiwan is a few years shorter than the OECD average. We need to identify specific areas where work is needed, adopt standards, and make every effort to achieve them. In fact, our goal is not only to reach these targets, but rather to exceed them. For instance, two years ago during the outbreak of the H1N1 strain of influenza, the death rate among those contracting this strain of flu in Taiwan was only one-third that of OECD nations, and only one-fifth that of the United States. This is one area in which we have already exceeded other nations. However, this is not the case for everything, and we need to work hard to reach goals in areas where we lag. Will we be able to join the OECD? At this time, it might be somewhat difficult. However, once we achieve certain conditions, there is a greater possibility for us to do so.
When I first began discussing the idea of a "golden decade," I mentioned that the policy I initiated during my campaign for the presidency would be carried out over eight years. My plan was to spend my first four years in office "undoing the mistakes of the past and catching up with the rest of the world." There are various areas in which we have exceeded world standards, but there are others in which we have not. As for a second term in office, my idea was to "remake the nation and pursue excellence." Therefore, in the coming four years, we hope to bring our infrastructure up to a level equivalent to that found in advanced nations. Of course, it will take some time to fulfill our goals on some fronts, including the sanitary sewer hook-up ratio and the public transportation utilization rate. If we don't start now, however, we will face an even more difficult task in the future. I believe that as long as we try, we will have a chance. For example, when I was Taipei City mayor, we set goals to improve each year. Consequently, we were able to see impressive achievements over the course of five and 10 years. A decade of development is not an empty promise. A decade of development refers both to tangible and intangible infrastructure. I am therefore confident that we will enjoy "a decade of wellbeing."