The legislature yesterday concluded the second and final day of a provisional session initiated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, passing 21 government-restructuring bills that will revamp the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics, overseas missions and ethical institutions.
To streamline the central government, improve its effectiveness and enhance flexibility within its departments, the government launched a plan to restructure the organization of the Executive Yuan, reducing the current 37 agencies to 29, which will consist of 14 ministries, eight councils, three independent agencies and four additional organizations, over the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2014.
The restructuring plans required legislative approval of acts concerning changes to the organization of the affected agencies, but 80 other acts still failed to clear the legislature.
After negotiations, lawmakers decided not to rush the passage of the 80 draft acts on which they disagreed by voting on them, as this would have prolonged the session by another day.
The seventh legislature closed on Dec. 14 to allow lawmakers to focus on the legislative elections last Saturday. The KMT caucus on Tuesday unexpectedly proposed a provisional session, saying that it was urgent to pass the scores of acts to prevent them having to go through the whole legislative process in the new legislature, but only 21 acts were passed.
Amid public concern, lawmakers decided not to vote on an amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法) advocated by Non--Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen Chin-piao (顏清標) in which local elected representatives, such as city or county councilors and borough or village wardens, would be absolved of charges related to the abuse of discretionary funds.
If passed, the amendment would benefit Yen, who has been indicted on charges of embezzlement and the fraudulent acquisition of public money while he served as Tai-chung County Council speaker from October 1998 to December 2000 in a case involving several Taichung politicians who sought to use public funds to reimburse expenses from night clubs.
In related developments, Premier and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that a new Cabinet would be formed next month.
Vice Premier Sean Chen was widely expected by local media to be named as Wu’s successor, while Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) was rumored to be tapped as the vice premier.
Declining to comment on the reported appointments, Wu said he “was not informed.”
“I cannot comment publicly on that before the president has made a final decision,” he said. “It’s the role of the president to appoint a premier.”
The oath of office for the eight legislature will be taken on Feb. 1. The legislature’s question-and--answer session for the new premier’s policy address could be set for Feb. 17, pending a decision by new lawmakers.
“The new Cabinet will definitely be in place before the session begins,” Wu said.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS