July 08, 2009
Programs Aims to Foster Export Competitiveness of Service Industry
Taipei, July 6, 2009 (CENS)--To shed the over-reliance of Taiwan`s economy on the ICT (information and communications technology) industry, the government will endeavor to push the development of emerging industries and foster the export competitiveness of the service industry, thus making the service industry a growth driver for the economy, according to the "service industry development program," scheduled to be passed by the Executive Yuan in its regular meeting on this Thursday (July 9).
Those emerging service industries include cuisine, logistics, tourism, cultural innovation, and medical care. The National Development Fund under the Executive Yuan will invest in some emerging industries directly or indirectly.
The program aims to boost the nominal value of the service industry`s gross domestic product to NT$11 trillion and the global market share of its export value to 1.2% by 2012, compared with NT$9 trillion and 0.9%, respectively, in 2008, the latter of which ranked 28th place worldwide. It envisions the creation of 120,000 job vacancies on average annually by the service industry.
The program has been formulated by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), in response to the instruction of President Ma Ying-jeou early this year, in order to alleviate the impact of global financial tsunami on Taiwan`s export-oriented industry.
Chen Tian-jy, CEPD minister, noted that the program focuses on upgrading the export competitiveness of Taiwan`s service industry, different from the focus on finance and tourism/leisure industry in the past. The CEPD puts forth the development strategies of augmenting the international competitiveness of the service industry, intensifying R&D for the service industry, creating differentiated services, strengthening talent cultivation, and improving service-industry statistics.
Concrete measures under the strategies include stepping up the effort to tap the Chinese and other emerging markets, assisting enterprises to deploy cross-Taiwan Strait and global logistics service network, intensifying the development of high value-added service businesses including reverse logistics and export of sophisticated agricultural products, appropriation of budget for assisting the development of the service industry, and the provision of preferential measures and financial support.
In addition, the program calls for the development of new-type service industries, such as the application of wireless communications technology in telemedicine and care, the value-added application combining hand-held devices and e-wallet, the development of community services for senior citizens by medical-equipment suppliers in cooperation with government agencies and academia, and the pushing of tech-oriented services, capitalizing on Taiwan`s edge in manufacturing and ICT industries.
(by Philip Liu)
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