The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday urged the government to follow Singapore in seeking salary cuts for all government employees.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) made the remarks after Singapore’s Public Service Division said in a press release on Monday that top government officials, including Singaporean President S.R. Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), administrative officers and political, judicial and statutory appointees would see their salaries drop between 11 and 19 percent next year.
KMT caucus secretary-general Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) backed Lo’s suggestion, adding that the scale of the cut should be determined according to the extent of public dissatisfaction with the government.
KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福), however, said pay cuts would unfairly punish hardworking low-level officials.
Later yesterday, when asked whether the Executive Yuan would propose plans to cut salaries, Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) said a comparison should not be made between Taiwan and Singapore.
“As far as I know, [senior] officials in Singapore are paid as much as private sector CEOs,” Chiu said. “They have an automatic adjustment mechanism, but our [government] salaries are fixed ... Our salaries are much lower than those of CEOs.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday said that while his caucus would not oppose a cut in the salaries of government officials, DPP lawmakers felt the benefits for the economy would be very limited.
“Such a measure is superficial. The DPP hopes the government will come up with real measures to boost the economy,” Ker said.
Meanwhile, the DPP caucus proposed a bill yesterday that would entitle households with an unemployed family member to a government loan of NT$300,000 (US$9,000).
DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) told a press conference that the government should not only help banks and other companies in trouble, but also assist the unemployed and their families.
Pan said a worker can apply to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) for a loan of NT$100,000 at the end of every year, but with unemployment on the rise, Pan said more people are ineligible for the loans.
The bill suggests that the government provide a NT$300,000 loan to households with a family member that has been laid off involuntarily and has not secured a new job within six months. The bill would require a budget of around NT$100 billion, Pan said.
Citing government statistics, DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that in the third quarter 17,100 companies temporarily closed down their operations and 1,500 companies shut down permanently.
Around 1.35 million people were unemployed in the third quarter, a rise of 30,000 year-on-year, Huang said.
The government also reported this week that the jobless rate hit a five-year high of 4.37 percent last month, Huang said, adding that the government must prioritize this problem and calling on KMT legislators not to boycott the bill.
In response, Lo said yesterday that the KMT caucus would support the DPP caucus’ proposal if it would improve living standards.
“We welcome any proposals by the DPP as long as they benefit the nation’s economy, but we will never accept any proposals that are proposed to make trouble,” Lo said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS