President Ma Ying-jeou and Vice President Wu Den-yih visited the Fullon Hotel Yamay in Taichung City on the evening of September 9 to attend a Mid-Autumn Festival banquet for representatives of Taiwan-invested firms based in mainland China. In addition to thanking the owners of these Taiwanese companies for the contributions they have made to the local economy, the president also expressed hope that the government and the private sector can work together to build Taiwan into a "free economic island" in the Asia-Pacific region.
In remarks, President Ma said he was honored to attend the event for the second time, and noted that representatives from 110 Taiwanese business associations, and over 260 people from Taiwan-invested enterprises in mainland China, were on hand. The president praised the efforts of these individuals, companies, and associations, noting that they have created business opportunities for Taiwan and have provided timely assistance in Taiwan after the occurrence of unfortunate events here.
President Ma recalled that in his 2014 New Year's Day Address he declared that this year would be the "year of Taiwan's economic breakthrough," and a number of achievements have been seen in this regard. For instance, as of the end of July this year, the composite economic monitoring indicator has been in the green light stage, representing healthy growth, for six consecutive months. The Executive Yuan's Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in August forecast economic growth of 3.62% for the third quarter, with GDP growth for the year as a whole coming to 3.41%, remarked the president. Meanwhile, he said, the Ministry of Finance announced that the value of exports in August rose 9.6% from the same period a year earlier to US$28.1 billion, which marks the seventh consecutive month that exports have posted a year-on-year increase. The president also stated that Taiwan's unemployment rate in July stood at 4.02%, which while slightly higher than the previous two months due to seasonal factors, was still the lowest level in 14 years for the month of July. In fact, he mentioned, some 670,000 jobs have been created in the six years since he took office, which has greatly reduced the level of unemployment in Taiwan.
Commenting on tourism, President Ma stressed that, as of the end of July, the number of visits made by foreigners to Taiwan this year stood at 5.63 million, and that the number of inbound visits this year in its entirety could exceed nine million. This shows that his administration has successfully highlighted the attractiveness of Taiwan as a tourist destination, the president said, adding that the boom in tourism has also sparked development of Taiwan's services industry.
President Ma stated that even though Taiwan's economy continues to rebound, the pace of its growth is lagging behind that of its trade competitors. The president noted that the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 recently released by the World Economic Forum ranked Taiwan at 14th among the 144 countries surveyed, down two spots from last year. He said that while Taiwan's competitiveness in Asia still ranks ahead of Malaysia, Korea, and mainland China, it lags behind Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. In addition, the president pointed out, a total of 384 free trade agreements or economic cooperation agreements are in effect throughout the world. While Taiwan signed economic and trade agreements with Singapore and New Zealand last year, it has signed fewer such agreements than its major trade competitors have, so the government needs to further strengthen its efforts to forge economic adjustments in Taiwan and sign free trade agreements with other nations.
President Ma then mentioned Taiwan's interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), noting that 35% of Taiwan's total exports head to TPP members and 57% of exports go to RCEP members. The president admitted that Taiwan this year may not see any major progress or breakthroughs with respect to joining these two trade blocs, but even so, Taiwan cannot slacken off on its preparations. The president explained that the government in February of this year called 21 of its ambassadors and representatives to TPP and RCEP member states back to Taiwan to draw up strategies with respect to these countries in a bid to remove trade barriers and obtain support for Taiwan's participation in these agreements.
President Ma also mentioned that while mainland China is a member of neither the TPP nor the RCEP, it has been Taiwan's largest trading partner since 2003. In addition, starting this year it replaced Japan to become Taiwan's largest source of imports, he said. The president noted that the Asia Edition of the Wall Street Journal on August 4 of this year ran an article entitled "Taiwan Leaves Itself Behind," which stated that the lengthy delay in Taiwan's legislative review of the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement is detrimental to Taiwan's competitiveness. However, said President Ma, some people feel that Taiwan should maintain its distance from mainland China or else it will lose its economic independence. Nevertheless, Taiwan's trade with mainland China (including Hong Kong and Macau) as a share of overall trade is now even lower than it was when the Democratic Progressive Party was the ruling party, the president stated. Still, cross-strait trade has grown considerably, he said, and last year Taiwan enjoyed a trade surplus of about US$70 billion versus the mainland, which shows that while the government is continuing to develop Taiwan's trade relations with mainland China, it is also strengthening its trade with other countries and is achieving the objective of diversifying risk.
With respect to the plans of mainland China and Korea to sign a free trade agreement by the end of this year, and fears that this development will impact Taiwan's market share in mainland China, President Ma expressed hope that the Legislative Yuan will speedily pass the Cross-Strait Agreement Supervisory Act, which will enable the legislature and the public to better supervise negotiations between Taiwan's government agencies and their mainland Chinese counterparts. In particular, he said, the Executive Yuan's Mainland Affairs Council in July of this year released a public opinion poll showing that 63% of the public hopes that the act can be passed as soon as possible. As for the Trade in Services Agreement, the president mentioned, public support exceeds opposition. This indicates that the government is not standing on the opposite side of public opinion, he remarked, but rather is carrying out its work according to the principle of "putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people."
President Ma emphasized that the government will continue to remove trade barriers, adjust industrial structure, and work to switch from an efficiency-driven economy to an innovation-driven one. He added that the free economic pilot zones initiative—six seaports and one airport—promoted by the Executive Yuan will help to add further momentum to Taiwan's economy. The president expressed hope that Taiwan-invested enterprises based overseas will return to Taiwan to invest here, thus strengthening Taiwan's economy and enabling Taiwan to become a free economic island in the Asia-Pacific region.
After President Ma completed his remarks, Vice President Wu reiterated his gratitude to the business persons for helping to promote Taiwan's economic development and for their contributions to cross-strait peace. He also called on them to help the government to reach the strategic economic goal of "building up Taiwan while linking with the Asia-Pacific region and creating a global presence."