Industrial Development of Taiwan: Past Achievement and Future Challenges Beyond 2020 (Routledge-GRIPS Development Forum Studies)

Before the arrival of the twenty-first century, Taiwan was widely regarded as a successful model of a country which had not only transformed herself from an underdeveloped economy into a high-tech industrialised island, but had also undergone a revolution from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Taiwan is now experiencing a significant economic slowdown and facing multifaceted challenges including low productivity, stagnant innovation culture of small and medium-sized enterprises, ageing population, sustainable energy mix, pension reform, upgrading of human resources, devising competition policy to provide incentives for innovation as well as to limit abuses from monopolies, warding off competition from countries with lower labour cost and managing complicated cross-Strait relationship with China. The edited book looks at Taiwan’s past successful development model, summarises Taiwan’s current situation, outlines the future challenges beyond the year 2020 and provides policy recommendations in the aforementioned aspects.

The contributors of this volume are accomplished veteran scholars in the fields. Several of them used to be policy-makers at the level of ministers or deputy ministers. The book offers not only academic contribution but policy-relevant insights.

Gee San is Professor Emeritus at National Central University. He was Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
Patarapong Intarakumnerd is Professor at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo. He is Editor-in-Chief of Asian Journal of Technology Innovation.