Warming up for the 2004 presidential election, the KMT yesterday held a seminar to announce its plan to help the nation tackle its difficulties.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
PHOTO: CHUN YU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
"The nation is faced with more crises than ever before with its chaotic politics, sluggish economy and rising unemployment," Lien said at the seminar. "This seminar is being held out of the good-will of the KMT, which has learned from its past successes and failures and can provide substantial advice to the government."
While Lien said the seminar was held in order to gather proposals to better Taiwan's development this year, yesterday's seminar, however, was widely regarded as a warm-up for Lien's run in the 2004 presidential election.
Lien has also scheduled a press conference on Jan. 24.
KMT Spokesman Justine Chou (
Yesterday's one-day seminar, titled "Salvage Taiwan through Reforms," was organized by the KMT's Policy Coordination Committee and the KMT-sponsored think tank National Policy Foundation.
Attended by KMT party leaders, KMT legislators and scholars, former New Party Legislator Lai Shyh-bao(賴士葆), independent Legislator Sisy Chen (陳文茜) and political critic Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔), the seminar focused on political, economic and social reforms.
The seminar's participants suggested that the party root out politicians with connections to organized crime or party members with a history of corruption.
Seminar participants said that direct transportation links with China is the key area to revitalize Taiwan's economic development.
"The majority of the people in Taiwan feel that direct transportation links with China is a necessary step," Lien said. "In a bid to attract foreign businesses to Taiwan and revitalize Taiwan's economy, the DPP administration should take advantage of its geological location and work to push for direct transportation links immediately"
Proposals to ensure the independence of the judiciary, improve financial management, develop the economy and reform the education system were also presented at the seminar.
Saying that the government's plan to increase fees for health insurance is a violation of human rights as it would add to the financial burden of the citizenry in the midst of Taiwan's sluggish economy and thus prevent the poor from seeking health care, seminar participants proposed that the government set aside part of its budget to help local governments to pay their debt to the national health insurance system.
Lien, who is also chairman of the National Policy Foundation, said the party will seriously consider all the proposals discussed at the seminar and will submit effective proposals to the legislature.
The party broke divided the proposals into various groups and appointed a number of KMT legislators and party leaders to head groups to evaluate the issues and to draw up feasible timelines of when the proposals could be implemented.
Before the seminar concluded, KMT Legislator Wang Chung-yu (
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include
RSS