President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of November 11 with Dr. Christian Ketels, a member of the Harvard Business School faculty at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness. In addition to explaining the ROC's achievements in terms of enhancing competitiveness, the president also stressed that the government will continue to assist in industrial upgrading to meet a variety of new challenges.
In remarks, the president stated that Dr. Ketels is currently the principal associate at Professor Michael Porter's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He is also president of TCI Network, a non-governmental global practitioners network for competitiveness, clusters, and innovation. Dr. Ketels is visiting Taiwan as an advisor to the preparatory office of National Chengchi University's Center for Taiwan Strategy and Competitiveness. In addition to continuing work on issues surrounding Taiwan's competitiveness, which Professor Porter addressed in his speech last year, Dr. Ketels will also assist in promoting cooperation between Harvard University and Taiwan on competitiveness issues, the president said.
Mentioning Taiwan's performance in international competitiveness rankings in recent years, President Ma first cited the World Bank's Doing Business report, where Taiwan's global ranking in the ease of doing business category has risen from 61st place in 2008 to 19th last year, and jumped to 11th this year. And according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2015 produced by Switzerland's International Institute for Management Development, Taiwan's competitiveness was ranked 11th in the world and third in the Asia-Pacific, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore. That was still ahead of mainland China, which was 22nd, Korea at number 25, and Japan at number 27. In terms of the "development of industrial clusters," the World Economic Form's Global Competitiveness Report has placed the ROC at the forefront of global cluster development several times, ranking Taiwan second last year and first in 2013, the president said.
President Ma feels that Taiwan cannot rely on its past achievements to respond to future changes. Although Taiwan's economy in the first half of this year was satisfactory, the situation has changed rapidly, with growth rates declining with surprising speed in the third and fourth quarters. In response, the government has introduced its Productivity 4.0 initiative, which it hopes will transform Taiwan from the efficiency-driven economy of the past into an innovation-driven economy, while also helping industry move from "price competition" to "value competitiveness."
President Ma pointed out that under the Productivity 4.0 initiative, the government expects to spend at least NT$4 billion annually in each of the coming nine years (for a total of NT$36 billion) in the electronics and information, metal and transportation, machinery and equipment, foods, textiles, retail, logistics, and agriculture sectors. The initiative, said the president, hopes to boost domestic per capita productivity by 60% in manufacturing industries to reach NT$10 million; by 40% in the service sector to reach NT$2.3 million; and by 70% in the agricultural sector to reach NT$2.5 million by 2024.
The president emphasized that as mobile devices and 4G mobile networks have matured, people's everyday lives have gradually moved into a new "always on" mode. This is creating enormous challenges for the government in social governance, amending and applying laws and regulations, information security, and safeguarding privacy.
On the other hand, however, the Internet has advantages in that it facilitates the communication of information and makes information retrieval more convenient, he said, adding that the Internet makes it easier to bring individual creativity to fruition as new products, services, and business models proliferate, redefining the face of the "knowledge economy." Corresponding to these new trends, the government has mapped out a white paper—ide@Taiwan 2020—released earlier this year. Hopefully, by establishing solid infrastructure, amending laws and regulations, and fostering innovation and deregulation, this initiative will create a top-notch digital lifestyle for the people of Taiwan, as well as new momentum for economic growth, he said.
Also attending the meeting were Professors from National Chengchi University Carol Yeh-Yun Lin (林月雲) and Joseph Chwo-Ming Yu (于卓民), as well as Ms. Janet Tan, initiator of the preparatory office for the Center for Taiwan Strategy and Competitiveness.