Participation in APEC Action
Plan Boosts Business Convenience
Improving
doing business environment is a major topic for APEC in 2009, and the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs called two meetings with the Council for Economic Planning
and Development (CEPD)—one each in January and April—to talk about how to
improve the ease of doing business in Taiwan under the APEC framework.
The CEPD notes that the APEC Senior Officials Meeting has discussed the
outlines of an Ease of Doing Business action plan aimed at improving the
overall regional business climate by identifying areas for priority improvement
in regulatory reform, setting concrete targets for improvement, and building
capacity for reform in member economies. The APEC Economic Committee has set up
a Steering Group on Improving the Business Environment to carry forward the
directive from Senior Officials to identify priority areas regarding the plan,
and Taiwan’s government has indicated its interest in joining the Group in the
hope that such participation will help, through international cooperation, to
maintain a grasp of international business climate developments.
APEC provides the finest platform for the sharing of practical experiences of
business-environment improvement among Asia-Pacific nations, and its projects
facilitate cooperation and upgrading among member economies. In reform in the
area of ease of doing business, for example, Singapore and New Zealand have no
minimum capital requirement for starting a business, nor do they call for the
issuance of profit-seeking-enterprise certification; Taiwan’s government has
taken this example to heart, and has revised the Company Law to abolish the
minimum capital restriction and the unified certification system for profit-seeking
enterprises. Such deregulation will spur corporate development and enliven the
operating environment, thus further enhancing the ease of doing business in
Taiwan.
