In many respects, Taiwan is very well-positioned for smooth development of its insurance market. Among the positive basic characteristics are a well-educated and prosperous population with per capita national income last year of US$19,315. Calculated by purchasing power parity, per capita GDP comes to US$45,900. Taiwan also has a high gross national savings rate of…
State coffers are benefiting from a rise in tax revenue, but Taiwan’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest in the developed world. Revisions to tax policy are bringing increased revenue into Taiwan’s national treasury, giving a boost to public finances as the government grapples with ballooning debt and anemic economic growth. Analysts and the government…
Expeditious reform of the public finance system is necessary to prevent mounting debt from crimping future economic growth. Taiwan’s public finances are increasingly strained by debt, aggravating the island’s fiscal woes as it struggles with flagging exports and weak GDP growth. Last year, the central government’s debt reached NT$5.28 trillion (US$161 billion). At 35.85% of…
Government procurement can play a key role in developing Taiwan’s software market. Taiwan has excelled at the development of information-technology (IT) hardware, in part due to the financial and other assistance provided by the government over the past two decades. But support on the same scale has not been extended to companies on the software…
The institute, the only Taiwan-based international organization, contributes to the global fight against malnutrition and poverty. A short distance from the Southern Taiwan Science Park and its cluster of optoelectronics and green-energy companies, an institute quietly engages in vital work in an entirely different sphere. What is now known as “AVRDC – The World Vegetable…
Proponents see an answer to world hunger; critics fear risk to human health and the environment. Concern over the safety of consuming food with genetically modified organisms (GMO) has increased in Taiwan, as it has in much of the world. Taiwan is a major consumer of soy, annually importing an average of 8 million bushels…
