Premier Mao Chi-kuo Attends "National Industrial Group Leaders Conference" to Promote Industrial Upgrading

Premier Mao Chi-kuo Attends "National Industrial Group Leaders Conference"

Premier Mao Chi-kuo, speaking on August 25 at the "National Industrial Group Leaders Conference," stated that in response to the sluggish international economic conditions, the government must promote industrial transformation and upgrading. In addition to assisting relevant industries in upgrading, finding new directions for export expansion, and further promoting and improving the investment environment, he also urged the industrial sector to face the severe challenges of the international situation, join hands with the government to overcome difficulties, and complete industrial transformation and upgrading as soon as possible.

Premier Mao Chi-kuo pointed out that starting in the second half of this year, the global economy has been declining, GDP forecasts have been revised downward, and our country's exports have also been considerably affected. In terms of the business cycle, although some industries will recover along with the rebound of the international economy in the future, during the downturn the government should be especially vigilant about which industries need to use this period of economic sluggishness to carry out necessary adjustments and strengthen their fundamentals as soon as possible.

On industrial upgrading, Premier Mao Chi-kuo stated that the government is using various methods to move our country's industries from the past competitive production process focused on cost and efficiency toward introducing value generated by innovation for the next stage of competition. On market layout, the government hopes to find various cases and models and move toward development in India and ASEAN and other places. In addition, the Productivity 4.0 program has been launched, integrating and linking the Internet of Things, big data, and smart production and marketing, and applying them to manufacturing, agriculture, commerce, and services. ETC is an application of the Internet of Things and big data, and is also a smart decision-making system; currently eight or nine countries have held discussions with our country, hoping to export the entire system or conduct technical cooperation with us.

On export expansion, Premier Mao Chi-kuo pointed out that in the past, due to the structure of our industries, the products our country exported were mainly intermediate goods and components, which have low added value; in the future, domestic industries should develop in the direction of system integration. In addition, regarding export destinations, besides mainland China, ASEAN and India together have a population of 2 billion, and their domestic markets cannot be ignored. We should squarely face the "produce locally, market locally" export expansion model. Premier Mao instructed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to select appropriate cases to provide replicable experience, such as cooperating with Japanese trading companies or local logistics networks, to smoothly help our country's products enter these countries.

On promoting investment, Premier Mao Chi-kuo stated that next year's government budget will adopt an expansionary fiscal policy, in which the public construction budget and the investment amount of public enterprises, compared with this year, will increase by more than 13%, the highest in more than a decade. It is hoped that through investment by government departments, a multiplier effect will be produced, and the related preparatory work will begin execution in the second half of this year.

Regarding the part about science and technology research and development driving industrial transformation, Premier Mao Chi-kuo stated that the government hopes to assist industries in breaking through technological limitations, and through the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Council of Agriculture, and other relevant ministries and commissions, invest in the Science and Technology Development Fund to drive forward-looking research, assist industries in completing technological transformation, and create a favorable investment environment. The budget of the Science and Technology Development Fund has increased by 4% over last year, exceeding 100 billion for the first time, demonstrating the government's determination to assist science and technology research and development and industrial transformation.

Regarding financing, Premier Mao Chi-kuo pointed out that for small and medium-sized enterprises, the government has prepared 240 billion yuan to assist with financing; for large enterprises, the government has also raised 500 billion yuan, hoping to combine private forces to produce a leverage effect and amplify the effectiveness of financing. On mergers and acquisitions, Premier Mao stated that the government will allocate a budget of 20 billion yuan from the National Development Fund, also hoping to produce an amplifying effect, to assist the industry in mergers and acquisitions, so that future industrial scale and technology can better keep up with international development.

On the stock market issue that the public is concerned about, Premier Mao Chi-kuo pointed out that a stock market crash is currently occurring globally, and several major countries and stock exchanges have seen sharp volatility. Under global interconnectedness, our country cannot be immune either, but through everyone's efforts, today the Taiwan stock market has stabilized considerably in both price and volume, which also reflects sound fundamentals. The government will continue to pay close attention to stock market developments and make necessary handling and responses.