Taiwan ranked 14th-freest economy

STILL WORK TO DO:In Taiwan, connections remain between politics and big business, and corruption is still a problem, the ‘Index of Economic Freedom’ said

By William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Taiwan has achieved its highest-ever score in the annual Index of Economic Freedom released on Friday, remaining the 14th-freest economy in the world, the same position it occupied in the previous year’s ranking.

The nation is ranked fifth out of 42 economies in the Asia-Pacific region and has improved over the past year in seven of the 10 categories measured by the index.

“Despite progress, however, a relatively high level of perceived corruption and a rigid labor market still restrain Taiwan’s overall economic freedom,” the report said.

Published and compiled by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, the report has attracted global attention for more than 20 years.

The global average score for economic freedom is 60.4 out of 100, with Taiwan scoring above that figure with 75.1.

Among the 178 nations ranked, scores improved for 101 nations and declined for 73, while 90 nations were found to provide a moderate or better level of economic freedom.

The number of people living in economically “unfree” nations remains high — 4.5 billion, or 65 percent of the world’s population. More than half of them live in just two countries, China and India.

“The fundamental relationship between economic freedom and prosperity is readily apparent worldwide,” the report said. “No matter the region, per capita income levels are consistently higher in countries that are economically freer.”

Hong Kong and Singapore were ranked first and second respectively for the 21st consecutive year, followed by New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland.

The index evaluates nations in four broad policy areas: Rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency and open markets.

There are 10 specific categories: Property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.

In Taiwan, connections remain between politics and big business, and corruption is still a problem, the report said.

“Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property,” the report said.

“In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume and invest in any way they please,” it added.

Prudent macroeconomic policy within a stable legal and monetary environment has been key to rising levels of economic freedom in Taiwan over the past five years, the report said.

“Commitment to structural reforms and openness to global commerce have enabled Taiwan to advance far into the ‘mostly free’ category,” it said. “Taiwan’s export-driven, dynamic economy benefits from a well-functioning legal framework and a tradition of private-sector entrepreneurship.”

“The efficient business environment is facilitated by a competitively low corporate tax rate and the elimination of minimum capital requirements for incorporating a company,” the report said.

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Labor Insurance Fund may be bankrupt by 2027

By Huang Pang-ping and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

People visit the office of the Labor Insurance Bureau in Taipei in an undated photograph.

Photo: Taipei Times

The Labor Insurance Fund is likely to start posting losses by 2018 and could face bankruptcy by 2027, with liabilities rising to NT$8.36 trillion (US$248.8 billion) from NT$6.83 trillion, according to the fund’s latest report released yesterday.

Bureau of Labor Insurance Deputy Director Lee Sung-lin (李松林) said that the fund’s bankruptcy could be delayed until 2038 if policy reforms approved by the Executive Yuan could be implemented.

However, policy implementation has been suspended until president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) takes over the government in May and appoints a new Cabinet, Lee said.

The Executive Yuan had originally planned to subsidize the fund by NT$20 billion to NT$200 billion per year, raising the insurance premium rate by 0.5 percentage points until it reaches 18 percent, expanding the insured salary levels by 12 months per year to reach 144 months from the current 60 months, and lowering payout rates from 1.55 percent to 1.3 percent for those with a monthly salary of NT$30,000.

The report did not differ much from the previous report, aside from a sharp increase of NT$1.53 trillion in liabilities, due to an aging society, Lee said

The fund’s return on investment has seen an increase over the past decade, which has contributed to reducing its debts, Lee said.

However, rising payouts because of increases in annual salaries of the insured and an aging society ensure that the fund would continue accruing debt and would eventually be bankrupt, the report said.

Economic issues are driving Taiwan’s elections: US report

By William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections are taking place against a backdrop of a struggling economy marred by near-zero growth, stagnant wages and rising prices, a new report by the the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said.

The economy is also suffering from the looming threat of an energy shortage, low domestic investment and overdependence on China, and the economic problems are expected to be deciding factors in the elections, said the report, titled Taiwan’s Economy Amid Political Transition.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have shifted the focus of their campaigns away from the traditional question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, it concluded.

The report, prepared by commission staff and aimed at members of the US Congress, said that economic issues will now determine the election results.

It said that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) generally advocates improving Taiwan’s domestic economy by expanding social welfare benefits, raising the minimum wage and promoting local sources of innovation.

However, KMT candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) seeks to prioritize Taiwan’s external economic relations, advocating further trade liberalization — especially with China — as a means of supporting export-led growth, it said.

“Stagnant wages, combined with unemployment in Taiwan’s largely high-skilled workforce, weak entrepreneurial innovation and low inbound investment, explain why Taiwan is in a period of slowing economic growth,” the report said.

“The severity of these domestic economic problems may explain why DPP candidate Tsai has maintained a strong lead in election polls,” it added.

Taiwan’s export-oriented economy has become dependent on China and vulnerable to fluctuations in Beijing’s economy, “contributing to a growth rate that has slowed to nearly zero,” the report said.

Further economic cooperation with a wider range of partners could help Taiwan diversify its export markets, identify solutions to its energy shortage and attract much needed inbound foreign direct investment, it said.

With Tsai generally expected to win the election, the report names five economists who will “likely take on prominent roles” in her administration.

US-trained economist Lin Chuan (林全), president of the DPP’s think tank, the New Frontier Foundation, would advocate for a comprehensive growth strategy that includes stimulating innovation, financial sector reform and diversification of free-trade partners, it said.

Another US-trained economist, Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), is also expected to win a leading position in a Tsai administration.

Hu believes Taiwan’s economy has become too reliant on exports, saying that Taiwan should diversify by linking its high-tech sectors with more traditional industries, such as precision machinery, the report said.

Others named by the report as likely top advisers are finance expert Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉); Taiwan Institute of Economic Research vice president Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫); and Taiwan Think Tank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志).

Social activism film premieres

HEAVY INFLUENCE:Director Chou Shih-lun said the party-state ideology of the 1950s and 1960s was the main cause of many family rifts following the Sunflower movement

By Chen Yu-fu and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Director Chou Shih-lun, center, takes part in a press conference following the premiere of his documentary Awakened Citizen on Thursday in Taipei, saying that many theaters are reluctant to screen the film.

Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times

The documentary Awakened Citizen (暴民) was premiered by the Taiwan Nation Alliance on Thursday and — despite the refusal of many large theaters to air the film — director Chou Shih-lun (周世倫) said he hoped it would allow Taiwanese to see the another side of social activists.

The state habitually labels protesters and social activists as “mobs” and “rioters” after an event occurs, Chou said, but people labeled by the state as a “mob” have a very different image when captured in the documentaries of Japanese director Shinsuke Ogawa.

Ogawa has made a series of documentaries capturing the resistance of the Japanese against their government, as well as the idyllic beauty of the nation’s countryside. He is best known for capturing the protests over the building of Narita Airport.

“When I recorded the proceedings, I saw people being abused. That is why I named the documentary Bao Min — it is a counterargument to the government’s claims,” Chou said.

Bao Min (暴民) is how the government labels protesters to cast them as mobs and rioters.

The documentary focuses on 10 different social activists, including a former member of the pan-blue White Justice Alliance, who transformed from a deep-blue supporter to an anti-blue protester, Chou said, adding that he hoped the documentary would illustrate to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) where he needed to improve.

Chou said he also hoped to sway the opinions of Taiwanese born in the 1950s and the 1960s, and to help them “wake up.”

Those born in the 1950s and 1960s have grown up under the heavy influence of the party-state ideology, which has to a large degree conditioned their mindsets and is the primary cause for many family rifts following the Sunflower movement in 2014, Chou said.

The movement was primarily to protest the methods by which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was seeking to push through the cross-strait service trade agreement, leading to a student-led occupation of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

There are still many students who have been thrown out by their parents due to their differing stances on the issue, Chou said, adding that he hoped to show these parents that their children were actually at the forefront of a 21st-century epoch.

Political commentator Paul Lin (林保華) said he remembered how the media gave Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) the nickname the “Violent Little Ing” (暴力小英) in 2009 following protests against then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).

The DPP has distanced itself from social activism since then, but those protests were not actually violent, Lin said.

Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao (滕彪), who attended the premiere, said the Chinese government had also labeled the student protesters in the Tiananmen Square Massacre a “mob.”

The Chinese regime is even less bound by the law than the Taiwanese government and Taiwanese social activists are much better off than their Chinese counterparts, Teng said, adding that even a small family meeting in China may lead to the family being detained.

It is very common in China, Teng said.

Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice convener Wu Jui-yen (吳濬彥) said he was very happy to be selected as a member of the documentary’s cast.

Coming from a pan-blue family, Wu said he stood up against the KMT government due to the downturn in the economy, the government’s poor performance and what he saw has the “keeping down” of the younger generation, due to low salaries and soaring house prices.
Wu said he eventually convinced his parents to see things his way and that his family would be voting for Tsai in next Saturday’s presidential election, adding that he hopes that Taiwan will eventually change for the better.

THSRC union threatens strike if overtime unpaid

EXPLOITED?THSRC employees have to endure long work hours, insufficient rest time, sacrificed holidays, forced overtime and unpaid overtime, the union said

By Huang Li-hsiang  /  Staff reporter

Unhappy with the company not giving them the overtime pay that they claim are entitled to for working on national holidays or biweekly “deformation” work hours in the past nine years, the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) labor union yesterday threatened to go on a strike during the Lunar New Year holiday if the company refuses to provide overtime pay.

THSRC recently opened three new stations and is to add 545 extra trains — totaling a record high of 2,065 trains — during the nine days of the Lunar New Year holiday this year.

The union yesterday issued a statement saying that the company has achieved its world-class standared of operations by exploiting its employees for many years.

While the company’s operating performance ranked high for its safety, punctuality and services — compared with other high-speed railways around the globe — its employees have to endure long work hours, insufficient rest time, sacrificed holidays, forced overtime and unpaid overtime, it said.

Up until the regulations on work hours were modified starting this year, the THSRC used the “biweekly deformation work hour mechanism,” but told employees to complete 2,040 working hours per year to earn overtime pay. It has not paid the overtime it owes its employees, the statement said.

Employees are forced to work overtime, with shorter holidays and no double pay for working on holidays, it added.

The union said the employees are getting paid a relatively low salary in an exploitative working environment, and that employees of Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train or South Korea’s high-speed railway earn more than two times the salary of THSRC employees, on an inflation-adjusted basis.

Although the union asked for legislators’ assistance last year and the company responded at the time that it would conform to the Labor Standards Act (勞基法), the statement said that the company still has not given any affirmative response to the union.

Therefore the union restated its demands, including immediate payment for working overtime or national holidays and illegal unpaid overtime pay; the immediate improvement in the situation of reduced holidays; allowing at least 30 minutes rest after every four-hour work period and that employees are not forced to work overtime.

If the company does not take any action or make a promise to the union, the employees will take their entitled days off on national holidays, including Lunar New the Year holiday next month, the statement read.

The THSRC said that it “has always respected and listened to the union’s opinions, and would continue to negotiate with the union to reach a consensus, so that transportation during the Lunar New Year holidays would not be affected.”

However, a union official dismissed the company’s response, adding that the union would decide on Jan. 25 whether it would go on strike during the Lunar New Year holiday.

In Pakistan: The revolution that never happened

The revolution that never happened

ARIEB AZHAR — UPDATED SEP 29, 2013 07:27PM

 go to http://www.dawn.com/news/1045345 for the complete article

Backdoor of the Communist Party office in Lahore. -Photo by Malik Usman

The law of resistance is a strange phenomenon of nature – a sapling growing against 

the weight of hard earth; an animal growing stronger in a hostile environment; the will 

of life to survive in the face of impending death. Perhaps, this can explain the romance 

and optimism that many of us felt during the repressive regime of General Ziaul Haq 

in the 1980s of Pakistan.

We had shifted from Rawalpindi to Karachi when I was five years old. My 

father, Aslam Azhar, had already established PTV in Pakistan, and had been transferred to the State Film Authority by Z A. Bhutto, who found his ideas 

too independent. When Ziaul Haq came to power he sacked all progressive 

minded professionals from government institutions, including my father.

I vividly remember the solemn atmosphere in our house when Bhutto was 

hanged in Central Jail Rawalpindi a few years later.

It was in Karachi that my father was introduced to Mansoor Saeed, who 

convinced him to actively join the growing Left movement in Pakistan, and 

our families became joined as one. Mansoor and my father founded theDastak theatre group in Karachi, which was the only group in Pakistan, 

besides Ajoka in Lahore, which sought to raise political awareness through 

theatre, in the face of a brutal regime. This is where Mansoor’s talented

daughter Sania Saeed gained her initial experience in acting and went on to become one of the most highly acclaimed actresses of Pakistani television 

today.

Seafood company owners accused of exploiting workers

Staff writer, with CNA

Two owners of a seafood company in Pingtung County and three manpower brokers were indicted on Monday, after it was discovered that they had allegedly hired nine Indonesians to perform work not in line with their registered job description.

The company’s owners, only identified by their surnames, Chen (陳) and Chang (張), were also suspected of mistreating the Indonesian workers by deducting their wages, forcing them to work overtime and confiscating their passports, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said.

The indictment said that to circumvent a 15 percent quota on the employment of foreign workers, Chen and Chang in 2013 hired via two brokerage agencies the nine Indonesian workers, purportedly to work onboard the Yi Jung No. 16 fishing boat.

Instead of working on the boat, the Indonesians were assigned to unload fish at the company factory, where they had to cut, clean and pack them.

Chen and Chang were also found to have kept the foreign workers’ passports, ordering them to work overtime every day and punishing them with the deduction of wages whenever they failed to return to their dormitory by 9pm, according to the indictment.

The prosecutors’ office said the Indonesians each worked at least 80 hours of overtime per month.

Apart from a monthly wage of NT$19,000, they each received only about NT$2,000 in overtime pay each month.

The nine workers received a wage that did not match the labor they performed, the prosecutors said.

Chen, Chang and three manpower brokers were indicted on a charge of causing public officials to make a false entry in a public document.

Chen and Chang were also charged with violating the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法).