"The Taiwanese managed the coronavirus pandemic very, very well."
A Taiwanese national who works as the property custodian and computer services technician at the Taipei office of MECO is smiling broadly these days. This, despite the fact that we had to cut allowances across the board due to paltry finances. Last year, we gave out only the mandatory 13th month pay, while in previous years, we gave out more, including performance bonuses. We slashed the emoluments of top officials, even doing away with the standard diplomatic reception on Philippine Independence Day, and OFW Paskong Pinoy celebrations.
More cost-cutting measures had to be undertaken because we subsist on income derived from the issuance of visas to Taiwanese nationals coming to our country. The year before COVID struck, 2019, we had close to 300,000 Taiwanese visitors to the Philippines. With our lockdowns and travel restrictions, we had less than 50 Taiwanese visitor arrivals to the country. And visa issuances are our lifeblood, making up some 80 percent of our total income.
But why is our faithful Taiwanese worker happier than usual?
In 2018, he and two friends put up a hot pot restaurant near the boundary of Taipei and New Taipei City. The food was good and the servings quite generous. Moreover, the pricing was low compared to the many restaurants serving similar fare. And to top it all, there was a parking lot in front of the establishment where diners could park, for free, a rare bonus in the capital. But by 2019, owing to its rather distant location with little foot traffic, the business was not faring well, and our Taiwanese employee decided to sell his shares.
He was a bit despondent, but he was right to cut his losses, just before the pandemic struck. With three children, and though his wife works in a bank, he was looking at a rather bleak picture of his fortunes.
But fortunately for him and 23 million Taiwanese nationals, their government managed to limit the contagion, by quick and resolute action with the citizens obediently covering half their faces with masks and observing the standard health protocols.
With his savings, our employee started investing in the Taipei stock market. For while the markets all over the world took a hit from the pandemic, the Taiwan stock market shrugged off COVID-19. After all, while record millions were being infected in countries like the US, Brazil, and the EU, and lately India, good governance and sensible health officials kept the infection numbers very low in Taiwan.
From January 2019 to the present, a sixteen-and-a-half month period, there have been only 1,199 confirmed cases, of which only 12 have died. Of the 1,199 cases, 1,048 were imported, mostly from overseas workers coming to the island, 99 were local cases, and 36 were officers and sailors of a Taiwanese navy vessel.
There never was any lockdown, although in August of 2020, foreigners arriving in the country were required to undergo strict 14-day quarantines, in hotels or quarantine centers, and by 2021, home self-isolation was allowed. Schools closed for two weeks in the early Covid days, but re-opened soon enough. By mid 2020, concerts, stadium games and indoor gatherings were allowed. Life was very normal, and the busy restaurant scene was flourishing even during the heyday of the world-wide contagion. Taiwanese love to eat, and few of them cook meals at home.
It was not uncommon for a stock market investor to make a 200-percent return on investment during the pandemic year. Electronics and semiconductor manufacturing shares went up by some 50 percent; shipping and logistics companies even higher. TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, a consistently safe investment, increased share value by more than half its pre-pandemic price.
The surge in prices was across almost all industries, including steelmakers and shipping companies. A familiar name to many Filipinos is Evergreen Shipping, whose giant container ships ply almost every route in the world. While sister company EVA Air took a hit, just like every other airline in the entire world, the container shipping company, the world’s largest, more than made up for the loss of the airline firm.
Even the constant threats from China failed to dampen investor enthusiasm. In the year of the pandemic, more than 650,000 new investors played the stock market. And for a population of 23.5 million, it is remarkable, no, amazing even, that there are 11.24 million stock market accounts in the entire island. That is virtually half the population. (Of course, some of these stock market investors may be foreigners residing in the island, but that would be a very low percentage).
The Taiwan Stock Exchange saw its index rising from some 10,000 points last March to some 17,000 points by the first week of May, surely increasing the number of paper millionaires in the island. And while every other country in Asia saw its GDP dropping precariously, Taiwan’s grew by 2.98 percent in 2020, and is expected to go up to as high as 3.7 percent this year.
And all because their government and their people managed the coronavirus pandemic very, very well.
Oh, how we in the benighted isles, wish we had similar fortune!
