College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia
Abstract
Taiwan's rapid economic growth and spectacular achievements is the result of the country’s long-term economic planning that began in the 1950s. During the period, Taiwan was only a small-scale agricultural economy. In 1952, agriculture's share of gross domestic product (GDP) in Taiwan was 32.2 percent, while industry’s share was 16.7 percent. However, in 1961, the agriculture's share fell to 25 percent, while the industrial sector's share rose to 23.7 percent. In 1962, industrial production contributed larger share of the GDP. Taiwan’s industrial development can be divided into four phases: primary import substitution (1952-57), transition and export promotion (1958-72), secondary import substitution (1973-80) and promotion of strategic and high-tech industries (1981-present). In this paper, the significance of capital, labour productivity and R&D for industrial development is also estimated by using a regression method
