PDF(2.7mb) - 國家政策研究基金會

Preface
Two important elections took place in Taiwan in 2008. Voters went to the polls to elect
a new Legislative Yuan on January 12 and their new president on March 22. The Kuomintang
won a landslide victory in the legislative elections and its candidate Ma Ying-jeou was elected
president. A majority government was formed for the first time in eight years. These changes
are chronicled and their impact on the future of Taiwan is analyzed in Taiwan Development
Perspectives 2009.
A global financial crisis occurred in the third quarter of the year. Taiwan was
hard hit and the new Kuomintang administration has done what it could to get the
economy revitalized. One way to stimulate the economic is to set a new cooperation
framework between Taiwan and the mainland of China in place. An economic integration
between them under such a framework is researched in this annual publication of
the National Policy Foundation. Other possibilities of improving relations across the
Taiwan Strait are also featured. Among them are a prospect of a Chinese commonwealth,
closer financial cooperation, and media exchange. Foreign policy of the new
government is also analyzed, while an attempt is made to find out whether Beijing is
seeking naval supremacy in the South China Sea.
The chapter titled Interior Affairs features party politics after the 2008 legislative
elections, creation of a special municipality of Taichung, autonomy for indigenous
peoples, and revision of the assembly and demonstration act, while referendums,
parliamentary reform, and exercise of the powers of examination and control are discussed
in the chapter on Government that follows.
Other chapters highlight studies on overseas Chinese in the United States,
budget efficiency and performance-based budgeting, tax reform, impact of high oil
prices on agriculture and fisheries, reconstruction of dangerous bridges, collection of
energy tax and car tax, development trends in physical fitness, long-term care and
long-term care insurance, protection of dispatched workers’ right, corporate governance,
impact of the global financial crisis on Taiwan’s economy, comparison of Taiwan’s
important education indicators, and the new pension system.
The National Policy Foundation hopes its annual report for 2009, which examines
and analyzes major developments in Taiwan, will shed light on how the country
should chart its course of action in the foreseeable future. Its publication, the sevix