Encouraged by the recent decision of the State Council to throw its weight behind the "Taiwan-Strait west coast economic zone" project, ranking officials in Fujian Province have expressed confidence that its economy will continue to expand at a pace that will enable it to approach or even surpass the scale of Taiwan`s economy within a few years.
In an announcement supporting the accelerated development of the "Taiwan-Strait west coast economic zone" project in May, the State Council set two goals for the project: raising the output value of the province to a level near or equivalent to that of the east coast of the Strait (meaning Taiwan) by 2012, and forming a close economic development linkage with the east cost by 2020.
The announcement represents a major upgrading of the project, five years after its birth, to the strategic policy level of China`s central government. Lu Zhanggung, secretary general of the provincial Community party and mastermind of the project, predicts that the size of Fujian`s economy will approach or even surpass that of Taiwan after several additional years of effort, a goal which is no longer an unattainable dream.
Tang Yonghong, deputy director of the economic research institute of Xiamen University`s Taiwan Research Institution, says that judging from the existing speed of development, Fujian`s economy can catch up with Taiwan`s by 2020.
The recent announcement is regarded a result of the cross-Strait thaw that has boosted economic links between the two sides. The thaw is most notable between Taiwan and Fujian, which hosts a major concentration of Taiwanese investors thanks in part to its status as the ancestral homeland of most Taiwanese
To highlight their emphasis on the economic development project, a succession of Chinese leaders have traveled to Fujian recently to inspect economic development there. The visitors have included Premier Wen Jiabao and Chairman Jia Qinglin of the People`s Political Consultative Conference. The first cross-Strait forum was also held in Fujian recently, further pushing the province to center stage in cross-Strait relations.
Statistics show that over the past seven years Fujian`s total output value has been expanding at a double-digit clip annually, hitting 1.08 trillion yuan (around NT$5.17 trillion) in 2008, up from 446.8 billion yuan (NT$2.14 trillion) in 2002.
This rapid development has considerably narrowed Fujian`s gap with Taiwan. The size of Fujian`s economy was two-fifths that of Taiwan`s last year, up from one-fortieth in the early 1980s and one-thirteenth in the early 1990s.
Observers note, however, that a number of obstacles stand in the way of the further development of the Fujian economy, including an inadequate transportation network, a shortage of high-tech manpower, and insufficient industrial chains. Improvements in these areas will be essential to the attraction of more Taiwanese capital, which is critical for the province`s future economic development.
Economic Indicators for Taiwan and Fujian, 2007
Economic Indicator | Fujian | Taiwan |
Population (million) | 35.8 | 23 |
GDP (billion yuan) | 916 | 2,822.4 |
GDP Growth | 20.3% | 5.7% |
Per capita GDP (yuan) | 25,580 | 127,337 |
Industrial structure (%) | Agriculture | 11 | 1 |
Industry | 49 | 28 |
Services | 40 | 71 |
Direct foreign investment (US$ billion) | 8.1 | 15.4 |
Foreign trade (billion. yuan) | 74.5 | 466 |
Source: Annual Report on the Development of the Taiwan Strait Economic Zone (2008)
(by Philip Liu)
