On the morning of October 24, President Ma Ying-jeou attended the Building A Competitive Taiwan Forum and an associated breakfast meeting with key participants. The forum was held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei and was sponsored by the Commonwealth Publishing Group. During the forum, the president exchanged opinions on a range of topics with Harvard University Professor Michael E. Porter and other guests regarding Taiwan's competitiveness, cross-strait policy, and the training of talent.
At the beginning of the forum, President Ma stated that Professor Porter's ties to Taiwan go back a long time. He pointed out that Professor Porter's father was an officer in the United States Army who had been stationed in Taiwan a number of decades ago when the US military still had a presence here, so Professor Porter lived in the Tianmu and Beitou areas of Taipei City for two years as a child. Even after returning to the United States and ultimately becoming a professor, Professor Porter has continued to observe the state of Taiwan's politics and economy, the president said. He added that in 1996 Professor Porter was invited to deliver an address in Taiwan and at that time advocated the viewpoint that "competitiveness is productivity," and also offered that the state of cross-strait relations is an important factor impacting Taiwan's competitiveness, the president said.
President Ma stated that upon taking office six years ago, he set about addressing the underdeveloped state of relations between Taiwan and mainland China. He noted that the 2010 signing of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was applauded by six domestic industrial and business organizations here, as well as by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Taipei, Japanese economic strategy guru Kenichi Ohmae, and Nobel Prize in Economics Laureate Professor Oliver Williamson. They indicated that the signing of the ECFA was beneficial to Taiwan and was a road that Taiwan needed to pursue, he stated. President Ma remarked that Professor Porter, in another address in Taipei, publicly praised the ECFA as a moderate agreement that could spur greater interaction between the two sides and play a key role in launching a new chapter in the history of Taiwan.
As for Taiwan's competitiveness, the president stated, in the Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in September of this year, Taiwan ranked 14th globally, behind only Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong in Asia and the Pacific, but ahead of Malaysia, Korea, and mainland China. Taiwan's performance has been stable and scored high marks in the areas of goods market efficiency, infrastructure, and education system, he said. With respect to the WEF's recommendation that Taiwan should boost the efficiency of its public sector, fight corruption, and improve its labor market efficiency, President Ma noted, he had asked government agencies to examine the situation and seek improvements, so as to boost the economic competitiveness of Taiwan.
The president also mentioned that Taiwan ranked 13th among the 60 nations covered in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2014 released by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in May this year. Even though this is two spots down from last year, he commented, Taiwan still advanced two slots from last year in the area of economic performance, while its rank for infrastructure remained unchanged, which indicates that the government's efforts to boost the domestic economy are yielding substantive results.
After completing his remarks, President Ma exchanged opinions on Taiwan's competitiveness, cross-strait policy, and training of talent with Professor Porter, Commonwealth Publishing Group Founder and Chairman Charles Kao (高希均), and the Group's Founder and CEO Cora Wang (王力行).
Commenting on the government's response to the modest rises and falls in Taiwan's competitiveness rankings in recent years, the president stated that while overall competitiveness rankings are important, more meaningful are the sub-categories, as they clearly indicate to the government which areas to examine and what improvements to make. President Ma acknowledged that while Taiwan still would benefit from improvements in the areas of government efficiency, policy transparency, communication with the public, and cultivation of talent, he added that the government is continuing to address these issues in an effort to boost Taiwan's competitiveness.
As for the future direction of cross-strait policy, the president indicated two policy objectives. First, he said, the government will continue to negotiate the Cross-Strait Trade in Goods Agreement, and it hopes that the Legislative Yuan can pass the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement and the Cross-Strait Agreement Supervisory Act as soon as possible. He stated that the government will engage in appropriate communication with the public on these issues, with the hope of having rational discussions. Second, President Ma said, the government hopes that Taiwan and mainland China can soon sign an agreement on the establishment of representative offices. The president commented that the need is urgent because each year the people of both sides make over eight million visits to the other, annual trade has grown to over US$160 billion, and the number of daily scheduled flights across the Taiwan Strait has reached 118. Despite this, he remarked, Taiwan still has not established an organization in mainland China to offer services to the people of both sides, adding that "this is not normal." President Ma emphasized that the purpose of such agreements is to provide services—there are no political implications or quasi-diplomatic arrangements. After all, the president said, "the cross-strait relationship is not an international relationship, but rather a type of special relationship."
With respect to Professor Porter's opinion that Taiwanese students need to bolster their abilities in the English language in order to meet the needs of the corporate sector, President Ma noted that work is being carried out in this regard. For instance, in order to boost students' foreign language skills and their understanding of economic and trade matters, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council has introduced an international business class in Hsinchu City for university graduates. On average, each student has received over 10 job offers upon completion of the class, he said, adding that beginning salaries mostly have been in excess of NT$40,000. This shows that English language ability has become an important factor in the recruitment of employees by local enterprises, the president commented.