《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Trade association harangues Jiang

BREAKFAST CLUB: The CNAIC trade group yesterday excoriated what it saw as poor communication from the government at a morning meeting with Premier Jiang Yi-huah

By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

請繼續往下閱讀...

Business leaders yesterday voiced concerns over the nation’s flagging competitiveness and urged the government to improve its communication to resolve controversies on major policies.

Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce （CNAIC, 工商協進會） chairman Kenneth Lo （駱錦明） made the remarks after a breakfast meeting with Premier Jiang Yi-huah （江宜樺） and key Cabinet ministers.

“It is not enough to formulate public policies if they don’t have the chance to go into practice,” Lo said, referring to the stalled service trade pact with China and the free economic pilot zones project, among other issues.

Lo attributed the deadlock to the government’s lack of effective communication, which caused Taiwan’s global competitiveness ranking to fall two notches to 13th place this year in an annual survey by the International Institute for Management Development.

The ranking marked the nation’s worst performance among 60 economies since 2009, as it was dragged down by a decline in government efficiency and transparency, while risks of political instability and budget deficits climb, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based institute said last month.

“The trend is worrying, as it is the third consecutive year of decline,” with Malaysia now overtaking Taiwan, Lo said, while Singapore and Hong Kong maintain their first and second berth in the region.

Furthermore, the government and industry tend to look at things from different perspectives regarding the minimum wage, environmental protection and taxation issues, Lo said.

The trade group has pressed for excluding foreign labor from the minimum wage protection and easier and quicker environmental impact assessment procedures.

Lo, who also chairs the Industrial Bank of Taiwan （台灣工銀）, expressed disappointment at the government’s failure to cut tax rates on corporate retained earnings, while raising business taxes on banks and insurance companies from 2 to 5 percent this year.

Taiwan Glass Corp （台玻） chairman Lin Por-fong （林伯豐）, who is soon to succeed Lo as CNAIC head, painted the tax hike as acceptable only if the government would halve tax burdens on retained earnings.

The government cannot raise taxes whenever it feels like doing so, Lin told local media.

Companies keep earnings to meet future expansion needs and the tax will hamper this, Lin said.

The Ministry of Finance disagreed, saying the tax on retained earnings should remain intact because it is an important tool to encourage companies to share profits with small, individual shareholders.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES