The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government will prioritize passage of a cross-strait agreement on double taxation avoidance as well as bills on the budget, government restructuring and an all-volunteer military in the fall legislative session, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday.
Mao said the Cabinet would also push a special budget bill to finance a river basin management plan, an amendment to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to raise wages for their employees and legislation promoting industrial innovation.
He listed the government’s priorities at a forum held by the KMT’s Policy Committee to discuss the legislature’s operations and coordination with the government before the new session begins today.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is the party’s presidential candidate, were all present at the forum.
Among the government’s top priorities is the ratification of an agreement between Taiwan and China that aims to protect Taiwanese businesses with operations in China from paying taxes on the same income on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The double taxation avoidance agreement was signed last month by Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) on behalf of their respective governments.
Ministry of Finance officials last month said that the pact would reduce the tax burden of Taiwanese companies and also offer an incentive for foreign companies to set up operations in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, KMT lawmakers at the forum called on party heavyweights to improve cooperation and solidarity before the January presidential and legislative elections, to avoid putting the party’s chances at risk.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that despite the Democratic Progressive Party’s internal bickering, it at least presented a united front during elections.
On the other hand, polling revealed that no one believes the KMT has the same willingness to maintain solidarity, he said.
“Legislators are often the ones sacrificed, because our party’s heavyweights cannot work together,” Lin said, adding that he hoped the KMT’s principals would be able to talk things out.
The president said he fully supported the idea and would “do everything in my power, wherever I am needed.”
Chu said solidarity was important, adding that everyone at the forum was considered a “member of the upper echelon of the party.”
“We must work together in order for our 880,000 members to be united in purpose,” Chu said, adding that only then would the party get the support it needs.
Wang said coordinated efforts by the Cabinet, the legislature and the KMT to push the bills through would be very helpful to the party’s chances in the January polls.
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