The ECFA talks between Taiwan and mainland China are entering the final stage, and a pact is widely expected to be inked by the middle of next month.
According to the poll results, 73.52 percent of the 657 companies surveyed said they support the signing of the agreement, while only 1.67 percent expressed opposition, and 24.81 percent said they have no opinion on the matter.
Noting that most previous ECFA surveys by the government and private polling companies have focused on the opinions of ordinary citizens, the Commercial Times said it decided to conduct a survey of companies in Taiwan, given that the impact of such a pact on the long-term development of the domestic economy is expected to be enormous.
The survey results revealed a difference in the level of support for an ECFA among Taiwan companies based on sector as well as the firms’ total capital.
Among the 35 surveyed companies in the financial sector, support for the proposed ECFA stood at 100 percent, far higher than that of technology firms at 64.09 percent and of enterprises in traditional industries at 76.37 percent. The findings clearly illustrate domestic financial institutions’ resolve to break into the mainland Chinese market once the pact is signed.
Opposition was more pronounced among companies in traditional industries, with a total of 2.24 percent saying they are against the planned ECFA, revealing that concerns still exist in this sector about the potential negative impacts of signing such a pact. In contrast, only 0.91 percent of the technology firms surveyed expressed opposition.
Meanwhile, some 90 percent of companies with more than NT$10 billion (US$312 million) in capital said they support the signing of an ECFA, with about 10 percent expressing no opinion.
Among firms with between NT$5 billion and NT$10 billion in capital, only 1.41 percent said they are against the pact, while 1.77 percent of companies with between NT$1 billion and NT$5 billion expressed opposition, and 2.24 percent of firms with under NT$1 billion in capital said they are opposed to it.
The results show that the larger a company is, the more confident it is about forging an ECFA with the mainland, and the fewer concerns it has over the potential negative impacts. As for firms with less than NT$1 billion in capital, their ability to adapt to a changing environment tends to be weaker, and their concerns about the planned ECFA run deeper. (SB)