By Sean Lin / Staff reporterAs President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德) crossed swords on economic issues in a televised platform presentation session yesterday, Tsai sidestepped a question on whether the winner of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary could count on the other’s full support. The question was raised by Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) editor-in-chief Tzou Jiing-wen (鄒景雯), the first of three panelists to ask a question that the presidential hopefuls had four minutes to answer. Lai said that from the moment he entered the primary, he made it clear that, if he lost, he would accept the outcome and support Tsai, adding that his stance had not changed. Raising the minimum wage benefitted people with the lowest incomes, but a wage hike also needs to consider whether the 1.4 million small and medium-sized companies could afford it, William Lai said. Local businesses faced with the challenge of new business models or international goliaths must be tackled, followed by attracting investment from local firms based in China amid the US-China trade dispute, William Lai said.

Source: Taipei Times June 08, 2019 15:56 UTC