Economic liberalization and political democratization are the two main currents in the world. The government of the ROC has entrusted long-term comprehensive mapping in these areas to planning and scholarly agencies. These include, under the Executive Yuan: The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) responsible for economic construction; the National Science Council (NSC), for science and technology; and the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), for long-term, comprehensive non-economic planning and implementation. These three staff agencies are peopled mostly with rela tively young scholars, with specialized knowledge and experienced in international academic cooperation. They employ scientific forecasting and computer analysis to judge economic conditions and to plan comprehensively.

The provincial and local governments have reflected the central planning structure, and established RDEC's of their own. The provincial economic plan is quite broad, and the impact of provincially run enterprises on the people's lives very large; the provincial government has established a Taiwan Economic Mobilization Committee. Counties and cities have set up planning offices for local administration. From the central to the local level, the ROC possesses a sound, appropriate planning system.

Given the broad efficacy of the government's planning organs, the budgets can then realize the principle of "If there is a plan then there must be a budget; a budget is the quantification of planning." This allows resources to be used reasonably and can create new resources. This is a powerful factor for the future development of the ROC

Looking at national comprehensive planning, planning over the last forty years has stressed the developing of light industry and the spurring of hardware construction; this is a necessary process for a developing country. As the country moves toward a developed country, planning should actively develop heavy industry and stress software construction. Only then can national modernization be spurred.

For the past five years, economic prosperity, quickened social change, and democratic pluralization have become ever more evident; after the lifting of martial law, there have been many street activities. Scholars often use "society is in a transitional phase" as the only explanation. This view is not deep enough. If today's society is the "cause" from which we can estimate the future "results," then what were the past "causes" of today's "results"? If we look at it from a planning point of view, today's social disorder shows the shortcomings of the government's planned investments in social affairs. In the past economic growth was stressed, environmental protection deemphasized; the environmental protection movement is the inevitable price to be paid. Everyone must acknowledge this, only then can the truth be understood.

Planning work today should include the following two points; only then can the nation's resources be more effectively used to bring the ROC to the 21st century.

(1) An integrated long-term national plan should be adopted: Over the past forty years, the government has set nine four-year economic plans, which laid the basis for national development. To face the new environment of the 21st century, the "Long-Term Outlook for Economic Construction in the ROC on Taiwan" has been established. The absence of noneconomic planning in this program will affect the implementation of the nation's long-term economic plan. Thus, the three major government planning departments should use an integrated method for a long-term plan and not only use economic planning to cope with future social change. Only then can there be a "social miracle" to create a true People's Livelihood "welfare state."

(2) A planning law should be established and interchange between planning personnel and line agencies strengthened. Government administration must be done on the basis of law. But the government has no clear central regulations for planning, not to mention establishing a planning law. This must have a quite negative impact on the planning function. The government should send a bill to the Legislative Yuan on the basis of the draft "Planning Law" decided by the National Conference on Research, Development and Evaluation.

Further, planning personnel are staff for leaders at all administrative levels; their duties are different from those in line agencies. To raise administrative efficiency and encourage nimble use of personnel, planning personnel should be sent to line agencies after a period of time in planning units. This will help in the realization administratively of the planning function.