International Real Estate Federation World President Judy Shenefield,
Deputy Interior Minister Hsiao (Chia-chi) (蕭家淇),
Chairman Huang (Nan-yuan) (黃南淵) of the Federation's Taiwan Branch,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning!
I'm really very pleased to be here at the 64th World Congress of the International Real Estate Federation. This congress was last hosted by the Federation's Taiwan Branch in 1986, 27 years ago. I am told that over 400 people from 46 countries have come here for this event, and on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of China on Taiwan, I want to extend my sincerest welcome to all of you. And I would also like to offer my congratulations to the hosts of this year's Congress, the Taichung City Government, particularly Mayor Hu Chih-chiang (胡志強), and the Federation's Taiwan Branch, for a job well done.
The International Real Estate Federation was established 65 years ago and now has 1.5 million members at branches located in 48 countries. As the largest international body of real estate professionals in the world, it has made enormous contributions to sound development and innovation in the real estate industry. The Federation's annual World Congress, moreover, is the most important global gathering place for real estate experts from industry, government, and academia. I would therefore like to salute World President Ms. Judy Shenefield and the branch leaders from around the world for the outstanding work you have been doing.
The theme of this year's World Congress is "Innovation in Sustainable Development." In recent years, low carbon emissions, sustainability, and green buildings have hit the global mainstream in the field of architecture. This government, as you know, has not been able to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. We are not a member of the Kyoto Protocol. Nevertheless, ever since I took office five years ago, this government has been committed to the control of carbon dioxide emissions. We have announced that by the year 2020 we will cut our carbon emissions back to the level of 2005. And in 2025 we will cut them to the level of the year 2000. There is no legal obligation on our part to do that. We do it voluntarily, because we want to make sure that everybody in the world understands this government is very committed to the control of emissions of carbon dioxide.
Taiwan, for its part, has achieved considerable success in promoting the construction of green buildings, conservation of energy, and reduction of carbon emissions. For example, the ROC government and the private sector joined forces last year on measures that reduced carbon emissions by 6.1 million tons, which is equivalent to the carbon absorption capacity of 61,000 trees. And Taiwan has also been actively promoting "low-carbon cities." In 2011, our government selected 52 model low-carbon communities throughout Taiwan. In 2014, we expect to establish four low-carbon cities—that is, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Yilan County—and two low-carbon islands—Penghu County and Kinmen County.
The public-private effort to promote sustainable development in Taiwan ties in very well with the "Innovation in Sustainable Development" theme of this year's Congress, so I feel that the "Taiwan experience" is well worth sharing with the rest of the participants.
Now I'd like to move on to another important subject. In the last couple of years, we have taken a few measures in order to maintain order in the real estate market. The ROC government has undertaken some important reforms to ensure a fair and sound property market. In my remarks here, I'd like to brief my listeners on our "property transaction price disclosure" system as well as our "special transaction tax on selected goods and services," otherwise known as the "luxury tax."
The point of "property transaction price disclosure" is to provide the public with access to information on real estate transactions in designated areas. This should make the process of buying and selling property more transparent and rational. Meanwhile, the purpose of the "luxury tax" is to discourage short-term property speculation and hold down prices. Let's look at the results of these two measures.
The "property transaction price disclosure" system was launched in August of last year, and since mid-October has provided public online access to information on property transaction prices. By mid-May of this year, price information on some 240,000 property transactions was included in the public database.
Since the launch of this program, price transparency has prevented sellers from putting properties on the market at unreasonably high asking prices. In Taipei City, for example, actual closing prices disclosed as of the end of February this year showed that housing was selling for an average of NT$151,000 to NT$157,000 per square meter, while realtors prior to that time had been reporting averages ranging from NT$167,000 to NT$182,000. So actual prices went down about 10% to 14%. So our idea to control price gouging has been relatively successful.
In addition, since June 2011 the government has levied a luxury tax on property transactions where the seller has owned the property for less than two years. Figures from our Ministry of the Interior indicate that, in the first year after adoption of the luxury tax, the percentage of transactions involving property owned for less than two years dropped off sharply from the year before in Taiwan's five most expensive housing markets. The biggest drop occurred in Taipei City, where the share of such transactions fell from 49% to 20%. The next biggest drop was in New Taipei City, next to Taipei City, where the share fell from 47% to 22%. It is thus quite clear that this measure has effectively discouraged short-term property speculation and helped stabilize the real estate market.
Ladies and gentlemen, Taiwan is a technology powerhouse in this part of the world. We encountered the financial tsunami five years ago and really suffered a lot. But we bounced back quite strongly. In the year 2010, our economic growth of 10.76% was the fourth highest in the world. Over the last five years we have achieved an average GDP growth rate of 3%, whereas the world average during that time, from 2008 to 2012, was 1.9%. For the first quarter of this year, our economic performance wasn't so good as we expected. The annualized economic growth rate for that quarter was 1.67%, which was not exactly up to our expectations, but it was still higher than that of Singapore and Korea, but lower than that of Hong Kong. So we are trying to overcome the problems caused by European debt and other problems, and the government works very closely with the private sector to find ways to reinvigorate our economy. In this process, the real estate industry plays a vital role. Thus we are trying everything possible to cooperate in many areas in order to make the economy regain its vitality.
Ladies and gentlemen, once again, I want to welcome you to Taichung, Taiwan for this wonderful gathering. As you know, Taichung City is noted for its very rich cultural life, so I hope you will find time to enjoy this rich cultural life. And last but not least, please do as much shopping as possible to help my country regain its economic vitality.
Thank you very much!