Economic Daily News: Job creation through commerce
ditorial abstract (File 4 of a daily roundup)
A series of meetings on the development of commerce have been held around the island over the past few weeks, and apparently, businesses are very concerned about the issue judging from the large turnouts. Upon the conclusion of the meetings, three visions and seven goals for Taiwan’s commerce-related service sectors were announced.
While the three visions — making Taiwan a logistics headquarters for global franchises, an Asian-Pacific operational center for Chinese-run e-commerce businesses and a distribution base in the Asian Pacific region — cannot be realized without the support of coordinated government policies to promote cross-border operations, the other goals, including boosting revenues of e-commerce, raising research and development investments, and creating 320,000 new jobs in the next three years, might be even more difficult to attain.
The job target of 320,000 new jobs in the commerce-related service sectors is almost a fantasy. Between 2005 and 2008 when the nation’s economic environment was relatively prosperous, the retail, transportation and inventory, as well as hotel and restaurant businesses, created 100,000 new jobs, increasing employment from 2.77 million to 2.87 million.
Employment in the three sectors accounted for 28.4 percent of the nation’s overall employed population, which is higher than the average of 25 percent in developed countries. In other words, the job market of Taiwan’s commerce-related service sectors is almost saturated.
In the past, large numbers of newly employed were found in commerce- related service businesses, which mostly remained small scale operations. In the future, more opportunities will be available overseas, mostly in the innovation businesses.
Future development of the commerce-related service sectors should be oriented toward improvement of efficiency and exploration of overseas opportunities, instead of recruiting large numbers of workers with a low threshold. As for creating jobs, the government should take into consideration the structure of the service sector and develop more knowledge-related service businesses such as medical care and nursing establishments. (By Lillian Lin)
More Info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=175131&CtNode=39
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