Olympics, Beijing, and Pollution April 5, 2008
Posted by umaced in China's pollution.add a comment
“Beijing is like an athlete trying to get into shape by walking on a treadmill yet eating double cheeseburgers at the same time. Polluting factories have been moved or closed. But auto emissions are rising as the city adds up to 1,200 new cars and trucks everyday. Dirty, coal-burning furnaces have been replaced, lowering the city’s sulfur dioxide emissions. But fine-particle pollution has been exacerbated by a staggering citywide construction binge that shows no signs of letting up.”
China had to promise a “Green Olympics” in order to be able to hold the Olympics Beijing this summer. With the Olympics being held in Beijing, the focus was placed on the pollution problem that exists all over China. Currently Beijing is trying different methods of getting rid of the Air pollution that could have adverse effects on the Olympics games. They are doing things such as moving factories and allowing only certain cars to drive on certain days trying to reduce traffic. The problem is, this only appears to be a short-term solution. Will it even be enough of a short-term solution? It appears, as of right now, that Beijing is only concerned with cleaning up for the Olympics, and not for the future.
This mindset is seen also all over China. Since China is experiencing such a rapid growing economy, the pollution is building up at an equally rapid rate. But China needs to keep expanding to keep up with the GDP expectations and also the manufacturing expectations. This expanding economy is bringing money into China, which is greatly needed. Should they have to worry about pollution just yet? Focusing on tackling the pollution problem would hurt the expansion of China’s economy. Is this fair?
Currently, China has put an environmental protection plan for 2006 to 2010 in action. This plan targets the emissions of sulphur dioxide and decreasing those and also encouraging recycling. Another part of this plan is to enforce stricter fines on pollution. the pervious five year plan, similar to this one, failed miserably. We will have to wait until 2010 to see the effectiveness of this program.
After discussion we all decided that this is a long-term problem that needs to be taken care of by looking to the future! We also decided that Greater China needs to be educated about the drastic effects that this pollution problem could have in the future. Overall, this is a global problem, China, India, The US and the world all need to take steps to clean the air.
The Post-election Economic Outlook of Taiwan April 5, 2008
Posted by umaced in The Post-election Economic Outlook of Taiwan.add a comment
Backgound Info:
- Taiwan had its “presidential” election held on 22 March 2008.
- Ma Ying-jeou of the Koumingtang Part (KMT) won a landslide victory over Frank Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
- The previous government, DPP, lead by President Chien Shui Bian has lead Taiwan to an accumulated debt of USD 0.48 trillion and an economic slow down for the past eight years.
- Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, a former mayor of Taipei, promised to fulfill ambitious growth targets (that includes many enhanced economic ties with China), while Frank Hsieh of the DPP has sketchier economic plans.
- Taiwan’s stock market rallied after the “presidential” election
Article:
Taiwan Election Likely to Breathe Life Into Economy
By Reuters | 20 Mar 2008 | 03:06 AM ET
When Taiwan votes for a new president on Saturday, many will likely ignore pro-independence rhetoric in favor of bread-and-butter economic issues.
Stagnating wages, rising inflation and a widening wealth gap have taken centre stage as election issues over Taiwan’s fragile ties with China, which sees the island a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its fold.
Taiwan’s more than 17 million voters hope the next president will promote warmer ties with China, which could boost jobs and investment and help cushion the island from the impact of a weakening U.S. economy.
The Taiwan dollar already reflects such optimism. It has rallied strongly since the opposition Nationalist Party (KMT), seen as more pro-China than the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won a landslide victory in legislative elections in January.
The presidential race comes down to Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, a former mayor of Taipei, who has promised to fulfil ambitious growth targets, and Frank Hsieh of the DPP, who has sketchier economic plans.
The KMT favours closer trade ties with China than the incumbent and independence-leaning ruling party. It wants to relax various restrictions on business with China, boost flights across the Taiwan Strait and open the island to more Chinese tourists, believing such moves will breath life into the economy.
“On the whole, Ma Ying-jeou has a more rounded economic agenda,” said Tony Phoo, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Taipei. “Hsieh is trying to focus on the quality of the economy so he’s not quantifying it.”
Many blame incumbent President Chen Shui-bian for neglecting the economy and putting too much focus on fiery language during his eight years in power, which rattled investor confidence and slowed economic reform.
Analysts say a win for either candidate on March 22 should usher closer trade ties with China, Taiwan’s top trading partner.
But the KMT’s Ma had a significant lead over his rival in opinion polls conducted by local media last week.
“This election is a wake-up call for the new president to pay more attention to economic issues,” said George Hou, president of JPMorgan Asset Management.
Fattening Taiwanese Wallets
Ma has proposed a plan known as “633″, which is to achieve economic growth of 6 percent, a jobless rate of 3 percent and per capita GDP of $30,000. Ma hopes his China platform will help him hit the targets.
With Taiwan’s economic growth averaging 4.9 percent over the past 5 years, several analysts said a 4 to 5 percent target would have been more realistic over the next few years as the world economy, hit by the credit crisis, looks set for a slowdown.
Standard Chartered’s Phoo said that lowering the jobless rate below its current level at about 4 percent, relatively high compared with a decade ago, would be difficult without boosting employment in the services sector.
Many factories have moved production to lower-cost locations outside Taiwan and critics say government spending has been minimal in recent years, fostering a sense of a widening income gap and lack of jobs.
Grace Ng, an economist at JPMorgan, said Taiwan need not look too far to see how closer ties with China would likely benefit the economy. Hong Kong’s GDP growth accelerated to about 7-8 percent after it signed a trade pact with China in 2004.
Ma also plans to spend T$4 trillion ($130 billion) over 8 years on 12 infrastructure projects to pump prime the economy.
Liang Kuo-yuan, president at Polaris Research Institute, noted the growing influence of China on Taiwan’s fortunes. “KMT’s 633 pledge will be impossible without China’s enormous market, and for Hsieh, a more conservative approach will not go down well with voters, especially since cross-strait ties are increasingly intertwined,” he said.
Hsieh wants a “prosperous economy”, with his policies based on a “golden triangle” of sustainable development, economic prosperity and social justice.
Ma and Hsieh have proposed expanding trade, from banking to tourism, including allowing more Chinese tourists to visit.
Taiwan will need to build more shopping malls and hotels, which will create jobs in services and construction and in turn lift domestic consumption and wages.
Taiwan’s stock market rallied after the legislative election, but has since weakened with stock markets globally, while the Taiwan dollar is up 5.5 percent this year.
“Financial markets overall do think that at this point in time, opening up of cross-strait links is the most crucial factor going ahead,” economist Ng said.
Questions To Ponder:
- Do you think Ma’s economic proposals is feasible in terms of reaching his “633” plan.
- Will he keep to his election promise and enhance the economic ties with China.
- How do you think Chinese government will respond to Ma’s friendly economic approach towards China.
- How do you think the new economic policies will affect the political ties Taiwan has with China.
- What are the challenges that Ma will face while implementing the new economic plans.
