President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of November 23 with Yale University Professor of Economics Robert Shiller, whom he cordially welcomed and thanked for visiting Taiwan.
In remarks, the president praised Prof. Shiller as being singular in his field of expertise, explaining that Prof. Shiller is not only ranked among the 100 most influential economists of the world, but also made the Bloomberg list of the 50 most influential people in global finance in 2011. Prof. Shiller, he said, has focused his research on financial markets and crowd psychology. In addition, he has made skillful use of historical data, collecting housing price data in urban areas, organizing them into a database, and collaborating with his colleague [Karl Case] to create the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which the president said are the US housing market indicators most widely used by the international media and financial institutions.
President Ma stated that the ROC in recent years has actively promoted a system in which the real estate transactions are registered at real prices. He said this system is designed to provide greater transparency in the market and fulfill the public's right to know market data. The president commented that the method adopted here corresponds to the principles espoused by Prof. Shiller, and in fact the initiative has been widely supported by the real estate industry and the public at large.
The president pointed out that the global economy is facing considerable challenges and Taiwan has felt the effects of the economic downturn. Fortunately, he said, Taiwan continues to place high in rankings compiled by various international economic think tanks. For instance, Switzerland's IMD in its 2012 World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked Taiwan as the world's seventh most competitive economy. The World Economic Forum released its Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 in September, and Taiwan ranked 13th among the 144 nations included in the survey, he said. Meanwhile, Business Environment Risk Intelligence of the United States in an investment risk assessment report it produces ranked Taiwan as one of the four nations in the world with the lowest investment risk, he noted. Likewise, the World Bank in its 2012 Knowledge Economy Index ranked Taiwan 13th in the world among 146 nations surveyed, and first in Asia, he stated, adding that the World Bank in its Doing Business 2013 report released in October ranked Taiwan 16th for ease of doing business, up 45 slots from 61st in 2008, he pointed out.
President Ma mentioned that Taiwan's unemployment rate in October this year was 4.33%, the annual growth in the Consumer Price Index stood at 2.36%, and year-on-year export growth in September reached 10.4%. While exports were down in October by 1.9% from the year-earlier period, the president said, export orders fortunately grew 3.2% over the same period, and export orders have posted growth for two straight months. While such figures would not be considered bad by many people overseas, the president said, the people of Taiwan have even higher expectations for Taiwan's economy, and the government will continue to make every effort to expand exports. At the same time, it will work to effectively reform the nation's pension systems in order to properly care for the people's well-being.
The president also stated efforts to secure a stronger position for Taiwan in the global economy. He pointed out that two years ago Taiwan and mainland China signed the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and that Taiwan is presently in negotiations with Singapore and New Zealand on economic cooperation agreements. The president believes that these accords will make substantive contributions to Taiwan's external trade. He also stated that the government here hopes that the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement will help to forge even closer relations between Taiwan and America, and help Taiwan expand its participation in economic integration and enhance the nation's chances of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
President Ma also noted that Prof. Shiller's latest book, Finance and the Good Society, has attracted much attention throughout the world. He expressed his hope that on this visit Prof. Shiller will use his expertise in the field of finance and other areas to provide suggestions to Taiwan that can be used as reference when the government designs and implement policies here.
Prof. Shiller was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Business Today magazine publisher Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河) and Council for Economic Planning and Development Deputy Minister Hsiao-Hung Nancy Chen (陳小紅) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Francis Yi-Hua Kan (甘逸驊).