President Ma Ying-jeou said Taiwan should open its markets. He was speaking on Friday to the dean of IMD Business School, Mr. Dominique Turpin. The Swiss business school is famous for its world competitiveness rankings.
In 2009, IMD ranked Taiwan the 23rd most competitive country in the world. In 2010, the rank went up to 8th, and in 2011 to 6th. In 2012, it fell to 7th and in 2013, it fell further to 11th. President Ma said that Taiwan’s competiveness is falling because the structure of the global economy is changing and Taiwan is not progressing fast enough.
The government is promoting free trade zones and trying to open up markets. But there have been obstacles such as the controversy over the cross-strait trade in services agreement. Ma explained these policies.
"Opening up markets and loosening restrictions will of course have its risks. But if the advantages are greater than the risks, than we should try," said Ma. "We’ve also set NT$98.2 billion to help industries that are impacted for the next ten years. This policy has been in effect for four years."
President Ma said that the public is concerned about relations with China. The government must explain these policies to the public more so that they understand there are more advantages than disadvantages.
He cited the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China as an example. The first group of goods slated for tariff reductions amount to over NT$20 billion. That’s a 35% growth over 2010’s NT$15.2 billion. But goods that were not on the list only grew 6.3%. So ECFA goods benefited 5 times more than those not on the agreement’s list.
After the signing of ECFA, exports to China have increased, but the percentage of total exports decreased because Taiwan is expanding to other markets. So in that sense, Taiwan’s reliance on China has decreased.
The president also met with top APEC official Robert Wang on Friday. Ma said that Taiwan's relations with China have improved much in the past 6 years and he is grateful for the support and help of the US. The US has mentioned support of the development of cross-strait ties and this has added to Taiwan's confidence.
Ma also mentioned that the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the US de-facto embassy, has said that the non-official ties between Taiwan and the US have never been better. He said this remark shows the great progress in ties. The recent visit of EPA Administrator Gina McCarty, the first visit of a US Cabinet member in 14 years, always shows that the US cares about its ties with Taiwan.