[LINK] "Taiwan seeks a new path to economic success"

The Globe and Mail's Mark MacKinnon writes about how, in the aftermath of the particularly severe local manifestation of the global crash and with growing competition from China, Taiwan is going to have to shift its economy from one based on manufacturing to one based more on brand names and higher value added products

“Before now, we never had to worry about unemployment problems. People are starting to become nervous,” said Yang Chia-yen, an economist at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. “If we don't lower our wage rates, there will be none of these job opportunities. Unless we do something different.”

To Mr. Yang, that something different would be building on “Made in Taiwan” to develop the cachet of “Designed in Taiwan” and “Educated in Taiwan.” Taiwan, he said, is well positioned to become the research and development centre for companies looking to expand in Asia and who are keen to use China as a manufacturing hub without being headquartered in the People's Republic.

One key, Mr. Yang said, will be liberalizing Taiwan's strict immigration policies in order to allow the island's companies and universities to attract more high-end talent from around the world.

Many also believe Taiwan needs to learn from South Korea's experience in developing such globally recognized companies as Daewoo, Samsung, Hyundai and Kia. Taiwan-based China Steel Corp. is one of the world's largest steel producers, but unlike South Korea, Taiwan has no domestic auto makers or shipbuilders.

“Right now, China is the manufacturing base for the globe. But some of those ‘Made in China' products are actually made by Taiwanese companies. Taiwan needs to develop our brand names,” said Cheng Cheng-mount, an economist with Citibank Taiwan.

Taiwan already makes about 80 per cent of the world's laptop computers and 40 per cent of the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used in flat-screen televisions, but outside of perhaps Acer Inc., the world's second-largest maker of laptop computers, few of its companies are known worldwide. Firms such as Foxconn, which makes the Apple iPod and iPhone as well as computer motherboards for Intel Corp., and Quanta Computer, which produces computers for Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and other customers, play a major but largely invisible role in the computer industry, though both now do nearly all of their manufacturing in mainland China.

[LINK] "Bay of Fundy turbine gets test run"

The plan to use Atlantic Canada's Bay of Fundy to generate electricity that I blogged about in September is coming closer to realization.

A turbine that will soon be deployed as part of a demonstration project on Fundy tidal power got a dress rehearsal Monday in the Halifax area.

Over a six-hour period, a barge that was custom-built by Open Hydro the Irish company that also manufactured the turbine for Nova Scotia Power was lowered into the Bedford Basin.

The donut-shaped device, which measures 10 metres across and stands six storeys high, was suspended 17 metres below water by hydraulic-powered winches.

The turbine then underwent tests before being hauled to the surface.

Within the next three weeks, the Open Hydro device will be installed at a site in the Bay of Fundy, near Parrsboro.

If the device can survive the winter storms, the turbine has the capacity to generate electricity for up to 400 homes once it gets connected to the power grid.

[LINK] "Region will have labour shortages sooner than the rest of the country, study says"

Heather McLauchlin, writing for the New Brunswick Business Journal, explores how Atlantic Canada's rapidly aging and shrinking population is soon going to cause serious problems for the region's economy.

Atlantic Canada will feel the effects of an aging population and greater labour shortages sooner and harder than the rest of the country, says a new study by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The study, called The Future of Atlantic Canada: Dealing with the Demographic Drought, was written by the federation's Amelia DeMarco and Bradley George, its provincial affairs director, and included survey results from 1,500 small business owners in the region, plus Statistics Canada data.

"Atlantic Canada's population is aging faster than any other region in Canada. It has the lowest fertility rates in the country, attracts the smallest share of Canadian immigrants, and has the highest out-migration rates in Canada," the report says.

In the survey, more than 73 per cent of respondents said the biggest challenges ahead over the next five years for small to medium-sized companies will be a shortage of qualified labour, loss of young workers to other provinces and an aging workforce.

"Atlantic Canada's challenge won't be to find jobs for people, but to find people for jobs, and taxpayers will also find themselves paying for growing health and social services bills," explained Leanne Hinchey, business federation's vice-president of Atlantic Canada.

"We haven't yet seen the signs that our region is changing its focus from the former to the latter."

"Many small business owners are doing their part to attract and retain talent by increasing wages, offering greater flexibility at work, and providing employees with training and advancement opportunities," said Hinchey, adding that "now is a critical time for Atlantic governments to be proactive about the region's changing demographics.

"Business owners are looking for their governments to partner with them to find real solutions."

New figures from the business group suggest that since 2004, the long-term job vacancy rate has increased to almost five per cent from three per cent.

[. . .]

The report quotes another recent study from the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies which predicts that by 2016, the number of available workers will be smaller than the number of available jobs and that by 2026, 12.5 per cent of jobs in Nova Scotia will go unfilled.

A similar report by the Policy Research Centre at the University of New Brunswick predicts that the labour force in this province will start to decline by 2011.

The report is available here (PDF format).

[LINK] "How corruption in paradise ensnared Canadians' dream deal"

At the Globe and Mail, Greg Arthur describes how corruption in the Turks and Caicos, a Caribbean island territory just south of the Bahamas often mooted as a future Canadian territory, has sucked Canadians into ongoing criminal inquiries.

A condominium and resort project headed by Toronto developer David Wex and celebrity realtor Brad Lamb has found itself – through no fault of the developers – ensnared in a judicial inquiry into systemic corruption among the islands' public-office holders.

A recent report by British judge Sir Robin Auld found that the Turks and Caicos government, led by former premier Michael Misick's Progressive National Party, routinely accepted bribes from overseas developers and that Mr. Misick and his ministers exploited the government's Crown land policies “for their own corrupt reward.” The United Kingdom, which has sovereignty over the islands as one of its 14 overseas territories, has suspended the country's Constitution, appointed special prosecutors to pursue criminal charges and thrown Mr. Misick – who is crying “modern colonialism” to anyone who will listen – out of office.

Stuck in the middle of this probe into multiple questionable land deals, as well as into Mr. Misick's illicit use of a private jet, sits Blue – a yet-to-be built resort that Mr. Wex, Mr. Lamb and a group of Irish investors first conceived of in 2005.

There is nothing in Sir Robin's report that suggests the Canadian developers approached the government to help them acquire the resort site. Nevertheless, the inquiry found that their purchase of the land produced a $5.5-million windfall for the same government ministers who approved the development.

“I'll tell you, I had no idea about this,” Mr. Wex said of the behind-the-scenes kickbacks that ensued from his project. “How do you think we feel? We look like idiots.”