President Ma Ying-jeou said Nov. 11 the government is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to enhance Taiwan’s competitiveness amid the changing dynamics of the global economy.
“The government is continuing to upgrade the country’s key industries through forward-thinking policies such as the Productivity 4.0 project, which was released earlier this year and targets eight specific industries,” the president said.
“Over the next nine years, this NT$36 billion [US$1.1 billion] initiative will see the per capita output of the local agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors top NT$2.5 million, NT$10 million and NT$2.3 million, respectively, or increases of 70 percent, 60 percent and 40 percent from last year.”
Ma made the remarks while receiving Christian Ketels, a faculty member of Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, at the Presidential Office.
As head of TCI, a global nonprofit network for competitiveness, clusters and innovation, Ketels is visiting the country to advise National Chengchi University on establishing a Taiwan strategy and competitiveness center.
Ma said the nation has been making great strides in major global competitiveness surveys in recent years, citing Taiwan’s 11th place in the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business report published in October. The country’s ranking in the survey has improved by 50 places since 2008.
Furthermore, Taiwan’s strength in industrial clusters was rated the best and second best in the world in the Global Competitiveness Report released by the World Economic Forum in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
But the country cannot afford to rest on its laurels given complex economic developments at home and abroad, the president said, adding that the Productivity 4.0 project will play a key role in helping transform the efficiency-driven, price-competitive local economy into one powered by innovation and high-value goods and services.
With 4G telecommunications technology and mobile devices bringing always-on connectivity to everyday life, Taiwan is also facing new challenges in the areas of information security, privacy protection, regulatory updates and social governance.
In response, the president said, the government introduced the ide@Taiwan 2020 initiative last month to help the nation succeed in the new knowledge economy.
Ma said the endeavor will help deliver better digital services to the public and spur innovation through infrastructure development and regulatory easing. (SFC-CM)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw