How Bad is Taiwan's Economy?

Recently an Economist in NATPA asked "How bad is Taiwan's Economy?, All data show Taiwan economy is good, GDP is 4/1% and stock is up in near 10,000 mark. Why you people complain?"

The response came from a well know industrialist in Northern California. Here are his comments:

The economic of Taiwan is as good as any advanced country with the same problem but different expectation. The problem is job loss, income loss, & uneven distribution of wealth. Even most of the companies are making money, the jobs can be lost. In our Silicon Valley here in California, we lost 150,000 jobs since 2000 from 1,000,000 jobs to 850,000 jobs. The companies are still making a lot of money. Intel just laid off 10,000 and HP laid off 20,000 in a year or two.

For Taiwan, the reality she facing are:

1. Companies are making good money;

2. Jobs were lost to China;

3. Money were moved to China.

In Taiwan, those companies making good in the stock markets are owned by foreign investors. TSMC and Hong-Hi are all more than 60% owned by foreign investors. In US, 50% of the stocks is owned by 2% owners. The same should be expected in Taiwan. What that means is most the stocks are owned only by a small group of people. So the stock price doesn't represent every citizens wealth, and it does not even the wealth of Taiwan.

The government should not use stock's price as a main indicator of economy but they has to pay attention to the job creation, income improvement for most of people, and improvements for investment environment like tax incentive, government efficiency, law consistency and legal justice.

The Taiwan's economy is good but the expectation is high, sometimes too high. Check CIA's country information, Taiwan's GDP/PPP is about US$28,000. Compared with Korea, $20,000, China $5,000 and USA $40,000.

GDP/PPP represents the real living standard, not just the exchange rate. For comparison, GDP of China is $1,700, Korea, $16,000, and Taiwan is $15,000. This is where they said Korea is doing better than Taiwan. If Taiwan economic index takes the personal income in China and investment income in China, it will be far far better. But the loss of jobs and loss of income for a lot of people in Taiwan is real.

謝同意台灣入聯合國的公投議案明年三月就終止

根據7月24日華盛頓的報導，民進黨總統參選人謝長廷拜會華府首日，相關人士指出美方高層明確向謝長廷表達，不支持以台灣名義加入聯合國公投，此議題已讓美台關係陷入七年多來最惡劣、艱困的時刻，台美間出現重大歧見。

相關人士也指出，但美方也很清楚，即使三月公投和總統大選同時舉行，謝長廷當選，「這個議題明年三月就結束。」

謝陣營基於誠信原則，對謝長廷拜會華府層次堅不透露。但據了解，謝長廷廿三日分別與美國國務院代理副國務卿伯恩斯、主管東亞事務副助理國務卿柯慶生及台灣科長夏千福晤談；國防部方面是與主管東亞安全政策副次長辛恩晤談，今天則將和國安會高層晤面。

相關人士指出，謝長廷在「美國七年來對我們最不友善的期間」，來到華府拜會，但美方在接待層級仍原則維持和馬英九一樣的規格，會談氣氛非常友善，非常坦誠，到目前為止的發展緩和而正面。

相關人士坦言，美方向謝長廷明確表示，「不支持」台灣入聯公投，美方不同單位都表達一致的態度。 據了解，謝長廷的立場也非常明確，他坦誠向美方說明，「案子也已經在進行中」，不管是他還是民進黨也好，都已通過要做了，他也親自簽了連署書。

相關人士指出，美方和陳總統之間有關政策宣示的方式，確實讓美方感到意外，雙方在溝通上，「中間有一點摩擦」。

因此，謝長廷在會談中，尤其強調「坦誠、互信，承諾要說到做到」。但謝也坦承，就以台灣名義加入聯合國公投這個主張，他「和陳總統沒有不一樣」，其實在理念上民進黨沒有太大差異。

相關人士強調，儘管和謝長廷在入聯公投議題上沒有共識，但美國方面很清楚，這個問題就算三月進行公投和總統大選同時舉行，「若謝長廷當選，這個議題也到此結束，議題就到明年三月。」

Imposrt Election Dates in 2008

Mark your calendar for 2008 elections in Taiwan --

台灣中央選舉委員會今（六）日舉行委員會議，通過:

(1) 下屆（第十二任）總統、副總統選舉投票日為九十七年三月二十二日（星期六），總統與立委選舉確定不會同日舉行，而

(2) 下屆（第七屆）立委選舉投票日為九十七年元月十二日（星期六） 。