By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter, in Taoyuan County
Taiwanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) could become globally competitive through quality control and devotion to research and development, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday in Taoyuan County.
The DPP chairperson visited the Youth Industrial Park in Taoyuan County on the second day of her five-day campaign visit to local industrial centers, which she said was arranged to “listen to the voices of local business leaders.”
Taiwanese manufacturers would be able to compete with and could surpass their Japanese and German counterparts in terms of product quality, she said after visiting Needle Roller Bearings Co, a connecting rod bearing brand that produces needle bearings.
“But not until you devote yourselves to research and development can you take the lead from your competitors and maintain an advantage,” Tsai said, citing the example of the Taoyuan-based company.
Improving Taiwan’s research and development capacity as a country is an important part of Tsai’s economic policy, which highlights industrial restructuring and an economy based on innovation and knowledge.
Tsai refused to respond to a story published by the Chinese-language Wealth magazine yesterday about a romance she had when studying law at National Taiwan University in the 1970s.
“Don’t ask me anything about gossip,” Tsai told reporters as she was leaving the factory.
She later visited CTW -Logistics Corp in the same park and received a rare endorsement from the company’s chairman Huang Jen-an (黃仁安) as most leaders of local SMEs tend to keep their political preferences private.
Huang praised Tsai for her integrity and honesty, which he said were must-have characteristics for a national leader. He also expressed his hope that Tsai would be able to make Taiwan a country with distinct differences from China, including human rights and democratic values.