Ma unveiled his national economic development blueprint when delivering a speech at the “Taiwan investment forum” hosted by the Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

Under the blueprint, the three said goals will be realized by sharply easing restrictions on the service industries to create massive job opportunities through a “golden triangle employment program.

Ma stressed that the first prong of the program lies in sharp financial and tax reforms to step up liberalization and internationalization of financial market operations, thereby creating 30,000 new job opportunities within four years and contributing NT$1.3 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP) per year.

The second pivot, Ma continued, rests with the opening of the local tourism market to Chinese mainlanders. The number of inbound mainland Chinese tourists will gradually increase from 3,000 people per day during the first year, to 10,000 per day in the fourth year. The average annual tourism revenue earned from incoming Chinese tourists will amount to NT$200 billion, and a total of 100,000 new job opportunities will be created as a result.

The third part of the “golden triangle employment” program will be targeted at healthcare service segment. Ma said that the global travel medicine market value is estimated to reach US$26 billion this year and soar further to US$40 billion in 2010, and therefore it will pay for Taiwan to venture into the market. Tapping such a market will help generate 30,000 job opportunities and contribute NT$380 billion to the island’s GDP.

The KMT standard bearer said if restrictions on the service sector are lifted, the program will work well and can compound another projects he unveiled earlier to make Taiwan become a global business hub for Taiwanese enterprises, and regional business operation center for international companies.

Ma’s economic development blueprint, however, drew mixed responses from experts and leaders in relevant fields.

Wu Chung-chi, a professor at the National Taiwan University, said the projected annual economic growth rate of 6 percent is likely, but very difficult to attain.

Lu Tien-lin, chairman of the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs, said it’s highly difficult for the jobless rate to be cut to under 3 percent.

Lu cited his council statistics as indicating that Taiwan’s jobless rate stood at 3.91 percent in the first eight months of the year, with a total of 442,000 people unemployed. If the rate is to fall under 3 percent, then the jobless population should drop to 327,000. In other words, he said, the number of the jobless should be cut by 115,000 and that of the employed should increase by 228,000, which won’t be achieved unless as many as 343,000 new job opportunities are created.

Liang Kuo-yuan, president of Polaris Research Institute, said Taiwan’s financial market regulations have been gradually tailored to meet international financial market systems, but the serious shortage of bilinguists and professional personnel has made it difficult for Taiwan’s financial markets to really go international.

In addition, the corporate governance should be significantly reinforced to make financial statements more transparent to public investors, which is also a key factor to attract more international financial institutions to invest in Taiwan, Liang continued.

Meanwhile, Liu Teh-hsun, vice chairman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, said allowing mainland Chinese tourists into Taiwan will surely be conducive to the development of the island’s tourism industry. But Liu also noted that his council won’t assess the effect of the market opening for the moment.

As to penetration of the travel medicine market, Hsieh Ying-hua, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Society of Travel Medicine, said it’s already a little late for Taiwan to join the market for the moment. But he said Taiwan is in a position to grasp some one fourth of the Asian travel medicine market, estimated at US$7 billion a year.