The Cabinet is considering the possibility of raising the salaries of civil servants, Government Information Office Minister Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday.
Factors that must be taken into account before deciding whether to increase wages include economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year as well as tax revenue, trade and debt in the first two months of this year, he said.
There have been calls for the government to increase civil servants’ salaries after the economy grew 12 percent in the first three quarters of last year, with growth projected to reach a 23-year high of 9.98 percent for the full year.
Supporters of the proposal believe the move would encourage the private sector to follow suit.
While addressing the Commonwealth Economic Forum earlier in the day, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised that the government would not lay off employees this year and reiterated that the Cabinet was seriously considering raising their pay.
Following Ma’s announcement, the Presidential Office later said the president hoped the executive branch would conduct a thorough evaluation of such a possibility.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said whether civil servants would get a pay raise this year would depend on the assessment conducted by the executive branch and that the president merely “reiterated the government’s position.”
“Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is cautiously optimistic about such a possibility, but it will still depend on the overall economy and state finances,” Lo said.
The executive branch particularly needed to take into consideration the economic growth of the fourth quarter and the tax revenues collected this month and next month as well as import and export trade and government debt, Lo said.
Following the special municipality elections on Nov. 27 last year, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the popular vote by about 400,000 votes, some KMT legislators called on the Cabinet to ensure benefits for civil servants to make sure that the KMT retained its support base in that segment. Some attributed the party’s poor performance to disgruntled civil servants.
Ma also told the forum that Taiwan was aiming to be a driving force behind economic integration in the region and a hub of higher education in a new rising Asia, amid a change in the order of the global economy.
As one of the Asian countries that have experienced a rapid recovery from the global financial crisis, Taiwan has also achieved a “recovery with Taiwanese characteristics,” Ma said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
‘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