Chinese Taipei Making Significant Progress Towards APEC Goals - New Report
Canberra, Australia, January 17, 2007
Canberra, Australia, January 17, 2007 -- An independent
report has found that Chinese Taipei is making positive progress towards
achieving APEC's free trade and investment goals.
The 'Study Report on Chinese Taipei's Independent Action Plan
(IAP)' to achieve its APEC goals was prepared by Dr Junsok Yang, Associate
Professor in Economics from the Catholic University of Korea, and Gloria
Pasadilla, Research Fellow from the Philippine Institute for Development
Studies.
The report looked at a range of areas that are part of
Chinese Taipei's efforts to reach the APEC Bogor Goals, which set the target of
free and open trade for industrialized economies by 2010 and 2020 for developing
economies.
As one of the four Asian tigers and an APEC member since
1991, the report highlights the positive economic growth of the economy and
describes Chinese Taipei as: "one of the most successful developing economies in
the 20th century.
"In the current peer review report, we, the reviewers, found
that Chinese Taipei has made significant progress toward the Bogor Goals."
The report explores the mechanics of Chinese Taipei's success
stating: "Market liberalization has played a crucial part in the development of
Chinese Taipei. For Chinese Taipei, exports have played the part of the engine
of growth. Much of Chinese Taipei's economic growth has been driven by exports
of manufactured goods such as textiles, electronics and IT products.
"Foreign investment, like foreign trade, also played a
significant part in Chinese Taipei's development; indeed trade and investment
were two faces of the same coin, two major pillars of its growth trajectory."
The report also noted the efforts of Chinese Taipei to
achieve the APEC goals across a number of sectors: "Chinese Taipei believes that
Bogor Goals is something that is to be continually striven for, rather than
something that can be explicitly achieved.
"We found that Chinese Taipei made especially noteworthy
improvement in customs procedures. The clearance time for cargo is among the
shortest in all APEC member economies. Significant improvements have also been
made in tariffs, investment, intellectual property rights, services, and
government procurement."
A fact sheet with excerpts from each of the thirteen areas of assessment is now
available.
The full report is now available here.
All APEC Member Economies implement IAPs to guide them in
their efforts to achieve APEC's Bogor Goals. The IAP review process program
provides each Member Economy with the opportunity to have their progress towards
APEC's goals assessed by Independent Experts.
Four APEC Member Economies are having their IAPs' reviewed at
the current round of APEC meetings in Canberra. This process involves a
presentation by the Independent Experts to a meeting of Member Economies
followed by an opportunity for these economies to question the economy under
review on the details of their IAP.
The review of Chinese Taipei's IAP took place in Canberra
this morning.
For further information or to arrange an interview contact:
Christopher Hawkins on +61 (0)433 810 844 or E-mail:
ch@apec.org
Anita Douglas on +61 (0)420 945 613 or E-mail:
ad@apec.org
