Virus success helps Taiwan buck global downturn with enviable growth

TAIPEI – As the world’s economies reel from the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan is on track to end the year clocking up enviable growth – a testament to the island’s success in halting the deadly disease.

Throughout much of the year, shoppers have thronged stores, restaurants have stayed busy, tourist attractions have remained open, and factories have kept humming.

In a remarkable contrast to comparable industrialised economies, which have taken a battering, official projections forecast growth of 2.5% in 2020.

“That probably will be the highest in the world,” Lin Chu-chia, an economist at National Chengchi University, said.

For the first time since 1991, Taiwan is also set to outgrow its giant neighbour China, where the virus first emerged but has now also been largely vanquished.

The International Monetary Fund estimates China will grow 1.9% this year, compared with a global contraction of 4.4%.

Taiwan’s ability to weather the coronavirus has centred on two crucial elements. 

When the virus first emerged, authorities made economically painful and unpopular shutdown decisions early on. 

Borders were shut, strict quarantine measures enforced, and carriers traced. As a result, Taiwan had no local infections for 253 straight days from early April.

That clean streak was broken yesterday when a woman tested positive after coming into contact with a foreign pilot, prompting a scramble to contain the new outbreak. 

But it was because the disease was essentially defeated by the beginning of April that Taiwan’s high-tech economy was in a unique position to roar back.

For decades, Taiwan has been the world’s premier destination for computer chip and electronics manufacturing.

And at a time when vast swathes of the world were suddenly forced to work or learn from home, Taiwan’s factories were able to meet the soaring demand.

“The key drive for Taiwan’s economy is the robust export growth,” Lin said.

Exports soared to a historic high of US$32 billion (RM130 trillion) in October, up 11% on-year, with double-digit growth in major markets including China and the United States, official data showed.

November’s exports became the second highest ever, with the annual total on course to break records too. Earlier this month, Taiwan’s dollar was trading at highs not seen since 1997. – AFP, December 23, 2020