September 4, 2004
The Council for Economic Planning and Development has cautioned that, if Taiwan hopes to maintain real annual economic growth of 5% from 2004 to 2008, it must not only develop as a high value-added manufacturing center, but also promote the continued expansion of its service sector. The council sees great potential for growth in the service industry but less room for major growth in the already successful agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
The CEPD predicts that Taiwan's service industry will experience real annual growth of 6.1% per year through 2008 and that the domestic product of this sector will increase from
NTD 6.34 trillion in 2003 to
NTD 8.55 trillion in 2008. The council also anticipates that the percentage of Taiwan's gross domestic product generated by the service sector will grow from 63.5% in 2003 to 67% in 2008. It foresees the number of people employed in this sector climbing from 5.5543 million in 2003 to 6.139 million in 2008, which would raise the percentage of people employed in service jobs from 57.9% to 60%.
The council further predicts that the knowledge-intensive service industry, which is receiving strong government support, will outpace other service sector categories by achieving average annual growth of 8% through 2008. It expects the domestic product of this specific sector to expand from
NTD 3.09 trillion in 2003 to
NTD 4.54 trillion in 2008 and that its percentage of total
GDP will increase from 31% to 35.6% in this period. The CEPD also forecasts that the number of people employed in the knowledge-intensive service sector will grow from 1.6 million in 2003 to 1.849 million in 2008, which would raise the percentage of people employed in these jobs from 57.9% to 60%.
(Central News Agency)
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