(A report submitted to the Plenary Meeting of the 42nd Session, International Labour Conference, Geneva, on June 10, 1958 by Mr. H. H. Ling, Chairman of the Board, China Petroleum Corporation, who attended the conference as Employers' Delegate)
I wish, first of all, to congratulate the Director-General on his excellent report which I find to be of absorbing interest. Perhaps due to the limitation of space, I find there are certain significant developments in the Republic of China which are not covered by the report. I propose therefore to enlarge upon that part of the Director-General's report with relation to the Republic of China presently based on the island of Taiwan.
In order to present the picture of the labor situation in Taiwan in its proper perspective, I wish to review very briefly the labor policies adopted by the Communists on the Chinese mainland. Six years ago, when I had occasion to be here to address the Conference as employers' delegate from the Republic of China, I mentioned the policy of the Communist Peiping regime to liquidate all leading industrialists and eventually to take over all private enterprises. Since then, the Chinese Communist authorities have tightened their grip on private industries by exerting rigid control over the distribution of raw materials and production and marketing procedures. As a result of these restrictive measures, many private enterprises have found it next to impossible to continue operation. In order to exist, private industrialists have no alternative but to agree to the terms of the Communist authorities for the joint management of their plants.
In January 1956, when most of the private industries on the Chinese mainland had virtually become state enterprises, the Communists issued orders to the effect that all private enterprises should henceforth be jointly operated. It was stipulated that private industrialists would receive no more than an annual interest of 5% on their investments. Although, in the same year, 125 million Jen Min Piao was earmarked for interest payment, 60% of that amount was held back for the purchase of various bonds issued by the Peiping regime.
To make things even more untenable, a so-called "self-improvement" meeting for over 9,030 private owners of industrial and commercial establishments was held in Peiping on March 5, 1958. At this meeting called by the Communist authorities, the participants were made to agree, among other things, to follow the lead of the Communist Party, to forego interest payments on their investments, to live on the fruits of their own labor by joining the ranks of workers and farmers, to leave the cities for whatever destination decided by the Communist Party, and to further tighten their belts.
After the conclusion of the meeting, private owners of industrial and commercial establishments in other parts of the Chinese mainland were told to follow suit. Numerous similar "self-improvement" meetings were held in all large cities. By pledging to support the various measures for "self-improvement", the private enterprises have virtually signed their own death warrants. By agreeing to forfeit the 5% annual interest on their in vestments, they have given up the last remaining claim on the establishments which they had set up.
So much for the situation as it exists on the Chinese mainland. In stark contrast to the strangulation of private industries by the Communist Peiping regime, we in the Republic of China in the province of Taiwan are giving every protection and encouragement to the development of private enterprise. For instance, a sum of $100,000,000 local currency has been earmarked by the Government this year for low-interest loans to be extended to small industrial and fishing concerns. Only two months ago, foreign exchange control regulations were revised by the Government in order to provide an added incentive to private industries to export their products.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the rate of production in the province of Taiwan has been on the upward climb. Taking 1952 as the base period, the year when I last had the privilege of addressing this distinguished gathering, cotton yarn production has gone up 206%, paper 210%, petroleum refining 289%, flour milling 1,000%, aluminum ingots 213%, steel bars 494%, caustic soda 273% and electric power 180%. What is most significant is the fact that with the exception of petroleum, electric power and aluminum, the other industries are all privately-owned.
Just as encouraging as the rapid rate of production is the number of new industries which have been established by private investors. One of the largest plate glass and artificial fiber plants in all Asia were established on Taiwan with private capital. Among the brightest spots in the production situation is the cement industry. Instead of importing cement from abroad, we are producing in 1958 600,000 metric tons, one-third of which will be exported. By 1960, we shall be able to produce 1,200,000 tons, or twice the amount that is being produced this year. This is a good illustration of the success of our second 4-year economic development plan which is expected to raise our national income by 33% by 1960.
To further step up production, an organization called the China Productivity Center was set up by leading industrialists on Taiwan in 1955. The first consulting organization of the kind in the island province, the Center offers managerial and production know-how to those engaged in the industries. At the moment, the Center is conducting an industrial and mining safety program and safety training courses for plant supervisors and foremen. A National Safety Conference under the sponsorship of the Center is being scheduled for the end of the month for safety engineers, plant managers, labor leaders as well as government officials. Safety posters, pamphlets and films and lantern, slides are also being distributed to industrial establishments at nominal cost or on a loan basis.
The ILO is to be congratulated for the splendid work that is being done to promote workers' education. I am in complete agreement with the Director-General that needs for workers' education vary from one country and region to another and that the first task seems to be to develop the materials helpful in stimulating the growth of educational activities on the part of workers' organizations and other bodies concerned.
In the Republic of China, employers are only too happy to assume the cost of workers' education. In order to have adequate supply of suitable textbooks, it is earnestly hoped that the ILO series of worker' manuals on Cooperation and Social Security will be translated into Chinese and published for distribution in Taiwan.
We fully share the views expressed by the experts on workers' education at the end of 1957 that the ILO should continue to publish workers' education courses for instructors and group leaders and that these materials should be made available in languages other than those used in the ILO. In devoting so much attention to workers' education, the ILO shows that it is fully aware of the vital role of education in raising the production and social standards.
One reason why so much encouragement is being given by the government of the Republic of China to the development of private industry is the belief that as the population grows, the problem of full employment can and must be solved by the setting up of more private industrial establishments. In this connection, I aw very favorably impressed by the success of the Andean Indians Program presently conducted by a group of ILO and other international experts in South America. An excellent article on the experiment by the Deputy Director of ILO appears in the April 1958 issue of the American Federationist. From that article, we learn what the ILO experts and instructors are doing to improve the welfare of some 7,000,000 Andean Indians now living in poverty and ignorance. This program is a good example of what can be done by the ILO in the comparatively backward areas.
I wish to conclude my remarks by submitting a proposal which I am sure has the support of my Government's delegates and my opposite number on the workers' side. I refer to the 180,000 aborigines living in the mountain areas in Central Taiwan. No less than the Andean Indians, these primitive people need the kind of help that the ILO is in a position to give. The Taiwan aborigines, for geographical reasons, have been living in comparative isolation from the people on the plains. However, with the approaching completion of the East-West Highway across the mountain region, the process of integration will be greatly facilitated. These aborigines represent an untapped source of manpower which can be turned to good use, especially in the region traversed by the East-West Highway. The experience gained by the ILO from the Andean Indians Program may, in my view, be put to good use in promoting the welfare of the Taiwan aborigines.
Compared to the Andean Indians Program, the project that I propose for the Taiwan aborigines is indeed a modest one. The 180,000 Taiwan aborigines are concentrated in a small area while the 7,000,000 Andean Indians are scattered over an area as large as Western Europe. If the ILO should see fit to initiate a Taiwan aborigines Program along the lines of the Andean Indians Program, I am certain that it can count on the full support and cooperation of my Government.
The program that I propose would include education for youth and adults, the building of schools, instruction and demonstration of agricultural methods, health care and education and vocational training, with particular emphasis on handicraft and cottage industries, road-building and logging. Such a program would help to bring about full employment in the Republic of China on Taiwan. It would offer not only suitable job opportunities for the aborigines, but would also help to open up the largely untapped natural resources in the central mountain regions of the island.
The employers whom I represent certainly hope that such a program can be worked out in the near future. It is a program that would equally benefit the employers as well as the workers in the Republic of China.
Before concluding, may I take the opportunity to assure the free employers of the Free World that all the Chinese employers in Taiwan as well as on the Mainland whom I represent have high hopes in the work of the International Labor Organization for social justice, and we are ever ready in cooperating with you in every constructive endeavor to uphold its noble traditions and fundamental principles.