Use "Kaohsiung Pilot Free Economic Zone" as Main Campaign Plank for 2020 Election

 Use "Kaohsiung Pilot Free Economic Zone" as Main Campaign Plank for 2020 Election

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 8, 2019

Translation of an Excerpt

Whether Kaohsiung will be able to set up a "pilot free economic zone" has become a topic of heated discussion recently. Not only Green camp city council members beat the matter in hot pursuit, even President Tsai and Premier Su have joined in the hot pursuit, seemingly having become a main campaign axis in the 2020 presidential race.

Many may have forgotten that the "Kaohsiung Export Processing Zone" began operations in 1966, and that the seven years between that year and 1972, Taiwan's economic growth rate hovered between 9% and 12.9%, averaging 11.3%; this “golden seven years” saw an unprecedented period of Taiwan’s post-war economic performance.

According to an estimate of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the Cabinet’s budget office, there are about 700,000 countrymen currently employed overseas; the expatriates are mainly talents in the high-end services industry, such as high-tech and financial services. When all the world has been developing artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, robotics, biotechnology, and smart logistics, Taiwan has been lagging behind in the high-end manufacturing industry and modern services industries, thus causing a brain drain. Taiwan needs to ease as much as possible its laws and regulations in order to attract investments by enterprises, both domestic and external, also allowing expatriate talents to return home to develop their long suits, just like Morris Chang and others who returned home in the 1980s to establish TSMC, creating the effect of attracting high-end talents in convergence with global capital. If the "Kaohsiung Pilot Free Economic Zone" is able to play such a role, it will be an even more modernized "Hsinchu Science Park", providing an excellent opportunity for fundamentally morphing Taiwan’s industries once again.

An ambitious government will use its brain and wisdom to push for "great stimulus" in order to gear up huge investments and new industries. If the Tsai government cannot think it through, bringing hope and vision to the people, then Han Kuo-yu should courageously don his armor, using "building the Kaohsiung Pilot Free Economic Zone" and "developing Kaohsiung into a capital of innovation and services" as planks to run for president.

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