Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1746-1049.1966.tb00493.x/pdf
The Developing Economies
Volume 4, Issue 4, Article first published
online: 6 MAR 2007
“THE MODERN INDUSTRIES AND THE TRADITIONAL
INDUSTRIES -at the Early Stage of the Japanese Economy”
Wrote by NAKAMURA TAKAFUSA
In recent years,
Taiwanese government is struggling to change the agricultural nature of Taiwan
into something that is more export-oriented and has more value reflecting on
the market. Does our agricultural income not important enough to have an impact
on the foundation of Taiwan economy? Here is a passage from the article which I
found, “not only did Agriculture supply the food to support the nation but it
supplied a large part of the labour force which was indispensable for the development
of the economy.(Page 568)” When our government trying desperately to make
Taiwan become an export-oriented country, we always forgot or intentionally ignore
the foundation of our economy. How can we say that our government ”ignore” the
agricultural industry in Taiwan? Look at the signing of ECFA (Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement) and the answer will reveal itself.
My
co-worker, Robert, mentioned a man who point out the problems that might come
after signing ECFA, Professor Kenneth S. Lin of the department of economics at
National Taiwan University, says that the signing of ECFA means the decrease of
job opportunities and the increase of unemployment rate. These unemployed
people are mostly farmers and traditional industry worker, these people’s
social status are near the lower part of our society. People always view them
with an economical judgment, conceiving them as a not-so-profitable group in
our economic system, agriculture had always been thought as an industry that is
doomed to be eliminated. But in the article, it mentioned that “it must be
taken into account that many of these agricultural people had side-jobs in
manufacturing and commerce.” Although this article is writing about Japan’s
economic development, it can also be applied on Taiwan’s working class. A
survey(*1) done by the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, shows that
compared to Professional farmers, Part-time farmers had now become the major
group of Taiwan’s agriculture system. And so this points out an important
concept, farmers and workers, they might have other side-jobs in their life, one
cannot define their economic position only as farmer and worker, we have to take
account of their side job’s economic value and contribution.
from “The Survey of Taiwan’s social Transition”
An image of the proportion of Taiwanese farmers' career decision
In
my last annotation I mentioned the raise of unemployment will cause our social
security expense become too high for our country to afford, and as Professor Lin
said, signing of ECFA means the decrease of job opportunities and the increase
of unemployment rate. These unemployed people were mostly farmer and workers,
when our country is already having troubles with these people’s social security
expenses, Taiwan also has to deal with the problem of losing a large part of
the labour force. These two major cracks in Taiwan economy are what we are
going to face when signing ECFA, since our government didn’t even consider
these problems, how can we trust them to decide the next decision for Taiwan’s future
economy?
Note 1: “The Survey of Taiwan’s social Transition”
by the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/TSCpedia/index.php/%E7%84%A1%E7%B1%B3%E6%A8%82%EF%BC%8C%E6%A8%82%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%3F%E8%BE%B2%E6%B0%91%E8%88%87%E8%BE%B2%E6%A5%AD%E7%9A%84%E8%95%AD%E7%91%9F
