By Flora Wang
Staff Reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) held an extraordinary meeting with Cabinet officials at the Presidential Office last night to discuss the recent slide in the stock market.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told a press conference later that the Cabinet had briefed the president about the nation’s economic problems — including last week’s drop in the stock market and rising commodity prices — as well as proposals to tackle the situation.
Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) reported on the bank’s moves to stabilize commodity prices, while Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) briefed the president on the ministry’s response to rising utility and gasoline prices, Wang said.
The president praised the Cabinet and the central bank for the measures they had taken to rein in soaring prices, Wang said.
“The president believes that the recent rises in commodity prices result from the nation’s dependence on imported energy, but that Taiwan’s situation remains basically healthy,” Wang said.
Yesterday’s was the first meeting convened by the president on the matter.
The Executive Yuan has drawn up plans to increase the number of middle and low-income households that receive utility bill cuts, Wang said, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs will present “unprecedented” incentives today to encourage households to conserve electricity.
“The president acknowledged the Cabinet’s measures and urged members of the Cabinet to sympathize with the public and take care of those who cannot handle rising commodity prices,” Wang said.
Similar meetings with the president will be held at intervals, he said.
A Cabinet-level task force met on Saturday to discuss revitalizing the stock market after Friday’s nosedive to a five-month low.
The task force resolved to encourage domestic insurance companies — which control an estimated NT$8 trillion (US$262.7 billion) in capital — to invest in the stock market and the “i-Taiwan” 12 infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) inspected the Kaohsiung International Airport yesterday ahead of the launching of cross-strait charter flights.
When approached for comment, Liu declined to reveal details of the task force’s proposals, saying only that the team would do the right thing at the right time.
The premier said he should refrain from making comments that could affect the stock market.
During the trip, Liu was criticized by Kaohsiung-area Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, who complained that only one charter flight from China would arrive in Kaohsiung on Friday, the first day of the flights.
“Kaohsiung residents could not help but shed tears when they found out the direct charter flight schedule for July 4,” KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) told Liu.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) told Liu “everyone seemed uninterested in Kaohsiung International Airport” when the schedule was made.
“[The schedule] was not something the central government could control. It had to do with the market on the one hand and with whether local governments made enough of an effort on the other,” Liu said.
Four Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government chiefs from the south protested on Friday against the schedule, including Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who said the schedule was unfair to the south.
Also See: EDITORIAL: The economy can't afford missteps
Also See: Government urges buying local stocks
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS