TAIPEI: Newly appointed Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Chairman Tsai Hsung-hsiung predicted yesterday that the unemployment situation will improve in September and that the rate will drop during the first quarter of 2010 at the latest.

Answering questions from lawmakers in the first legislative Economics Committee meeting since the new session of the legislature opened September 18, Tsai noted that the jobless rate surged to 6.07 percent in July, the highest level since the government began manpower surveys in 1978.

The record, however, did not stand for long, broken by the 6.13 percent unemployment rate registered in August when the latest batch of new graduates joined the workforce.

Legislator Lee Ching-hua of the ruling Kuomintang expressed concern over the August unemployment, which he said was the highest among the four Asian Dragons - Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Tsai told the lawmaker that Taiwan has passed through the darkest days of the economic downturn. With the launch of public construction projects designed to stimulate domestic demand, as well as post-flood restoration projects, more and more jobs will be on offer, he said.

Tsai, who took office September 10, was also asked about the government's casino policy after residents of Penghu county off the southwestern coast of Taiwan proper rejected the idea of opening casinos in their county in a referendum last Saturday.

Asked whether the government will turn to allowing casinos to operate on Taiwan proper, Tsai pointed out that there is no law that allows for gambling on the main island.

He explained that it is an amendment to the Offshore Islands Development Act that lays the legal basis for the outlying islands such as Penghu to open casinos as a way to boost their economies.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 09/29/2009 page2)