Taiwan Governance
This post is inspired by Professor Turton's latest posts about Taiwan's goverment's effectiveness. I will run down in no particular order some personal observations of 13 years here.
The Good - Vast improvement of visas - much streamlining and elimination of paperwork. Remember when exit permits had to be applied for? I also recall trying to register at various local police stations, etc., where the cops didn't even know how to do it. A nightmare.
- The little "dian che" commuter trains from Taichung to Changhua/Fengyuan- with ice cold air conditioning too.
- Helmet law. I thought that would never fly. Changing the motorcycle left turn rules to use the informal technique already popular. That takes some thinking outside the box.
- Broadband. And many government forms can be filed on-line, too.
- The attempt to make doctors separate the pharmacy from their operations and cut down on pill prescribing is not working too well.
- The no plastic bag rule. I do think it was partly successful, but I wonder if they could not have simply specified that only one plastic material would be allowed for making bags, and thus make them easy to recycle. But for sure, I use way less bags now and don't miss them.
- Charging for Parking. I like it, but wonder why the truck with the ad on it sat by McDonald's for a month. Oh, and I will credit the EPA with removing abandoned cars after repeated warnings. I think my old Sanyang went this way without me even noticing. R.I.P.
- Improvement in foreign investment rules. Back in The Day, foreign investors had to pay a higher tax rate on profits than Taiwanese. We also can now buy homes. Yay!
- Regulation of Cable TV monopolies.
- Import labeling laws, specifically for beer. Too much nitpicking and draconian fines. Example: Heineken had to sue the government to accept the product name could be "beer" instead of the letter of the law "beer type" or face NT$ 1,000 / bottle fines. (Do the math.) Another example, the Taipei authorities suddenly switched to only accepting "production date and expiry date" as opposed to the rest of Taiwan which accepted "production date and a shelf life." (Meanwhile local companies are free to put huge American flags on domestically produced items.) Yes, local language labeling is important for consumers, but decide upon the format and keep it for more than 6 months.
- Why the hell doesn't the high speed train link up with CKS airport? If I am wrong about this, let me know.
3 comments:
The very good: Car inspection. I've only done it a couple of times in the U.S., and every experience felt like I was in Brezhnev-era Russia (Like all my U.S. comparisons, might be a Florida thing). I inspected my car in Taichung up at the place up the hill past the university. No waiting, and everyone was polite and professional. I could hardly believe I was dealing with a government entity. Even when I found out I had an unpaid traffic violation, it was still a cakewalk.
Great topic
Good
Post office -- delivery sometimes on Sundays!
Recycling -- trucks around every day to pick up your stuff, right to your door.
The highway system -- for the most part it's pretty good, especially the new highway 3
Yes, I totally spaced the post office. I heard that they are very well regarded internationally. I've had catalogs delivered to Germany in 3 days via regular airmail.
Karl has hit it on the nose for a good metric:
"I could hardly believe I was dealing with a government entity."
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