Path: news.cs.columbia.edu!newsmaster.cc.columbia.edu!flute.clari.net!soprano.clari.net!clarinews
X-Fn: bw/Qtaiwan-lee-economy.RQ9l_9FF
Distribution: cl-3,cl-edu,cl-4,cl-corp,cl-be
X-No-Archive: yes
From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.taiwan
Subject: Taiwan president vows to reform economy
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qtaiwan-lee-economyURQ9l_9FF@clari.net>
Lines: 48
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 1:22:28 PST
ACategory: financial
Slugword: Taiwan-Lee-economy
Threadword: taiwan
Priority: regular
Approved: e.news@clari.net
Xref: news.cs.columbia.edu clari.world.asia.taiwan:9865

  	  				 
   TAIPEI, Feb 15 (AFP) - President Lee Teng-hui pledged Monday to  
reform Taiwan's economy this year to restore confidence in the 
financial market. 
   "I promise that this year we will concentrate on economic and  
finanical issues to conduct the necessary reforms to strengthen the 
health of our economy," Lee said in his annual Lunar New Year Eve 
address. 
   "The government must take active and steady action to retore  
people's confidence," Lee said. 
   Several companies have been hit by financial troubles and Lee  
admitted that government measures had failed to ease the jittery 
market. 
   Taiwan's stock market has plunged to a nearly three-year low on  
the back of mounting financial troubles at local companies and 
concerns over bad loans in the banking sector. 
   Economic growth last year slipped to 4.83 percent, the lowest  
level for 15 years, amid a world economic downturn and Asia's 
financial crisis. 
   Lee urged Taiwanese to have confidence in Taiwan's fundamentals  
as many foreign institutional investors had given positive views on 
the island's economic prospects. 
   Taiwan was recently ranked third among the countries with the  
best economic outlook by the US Commerce Department among the United 
States' top 20 export markets, Lee said. 
   "People here should not lose faith in Taiwan's economy ... the  
country's overall economic performance and financial conditions are 
better than many other developing countries," he said. 
   "Financial problems at a small number of enterprises would  
certainly not shake our economic foundation," he added. 
-=-=-	 
		   C O P Y R I G H T * R E M I N D E R 	

   This article is Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse.  
   All articles in the clari.* news hierarchy are Copyrighted and licensed  
to ClariNet Communications Corp. for distribution.  Except for articles 
in the biz.clarinet newsgroups, only paid subscribers may access 
these articles. Any unauthorized access, reproduction or transmission 
is strictly prohibited. 
   We offer a reward to the person who first provides us with  
information that helps stop those who distribute or receive our news 
feeds without authorization.  Please send reports to reward@clari.net. 
[Use info@clari.net for sales or other inquiries.] 

   Details on the use of ClariNet material and other info can be found in  
the user documentation section of <<our web page>> <http://www.clari.net>. 
  	   	

