Participants at the Taiwan Citizen Conference on National Affairs yesterday called on the government to make better use of its resources to help the poor and create substantive jobs rather than fund small public construction projects and create short-term jobs.
“The government was sleeping at the switch when it suddenly faced a rise in unemployment,” former Council for Economic Planning and Development vice chairman Chang Ching-sen (張景森) told the conference.
“Its ‘piecemeal’ economic polices cannot resolve the problem,” he said.
The event was hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union to encourage discussion on economic matters.
Chang said the government should cut inflated budgets and use the money to help economically disadvantaged people directly.
The government should also use budgets to create jobs in the public sector.
Special emphasis should be put on social programs such as digitizing Chinese-language books, creating care centers for the elderly and young children, building community security networks and creating free tutoring schools for children from poor families, he said.
Liu Chin-hsin (劉進興), a former consultant for the Council of Labor Affairs, said that the government’s economic policies tended to benefit investors rather than workers and created too much dependence on China.
Instead, we need to build a healthy economic environment in Taiwan, he said.
He said that allowing Chinese to work in Taiwan — a possibility explored by the government — would be dangerous at the present time.
Liu called on the government to extend relief funds for unemployment from six months to nine months and improve the social security network before a potential rise in unemployment.
Chien Hsi-chieh, executive director of the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan, criticized the tax reduction measures adopted by the government.
He said the new reductions benefited the rich and increased the tax burden on low and middle-income earners.
Statistics showed that some rich people do not pay income tax, while the exchange and estate taxes have been reduced, Chien said.
The working class pays 75 percent of the nation’s total tax revenue, which shows an imbalance in tax liability between employers and employees, he said.
Also attending the conference was former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who said that she would take a NT$500,000 cut in her annual retirement benefits this year, which amount to NT$3.5 million, so that the government could use the money to help disadvantaged people.
Lu also called on her “former colleagues” to follow her example, saying that it was time for Taiwanese society to develop a social conscience and to strive for greater justice.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
Tasa Meng Corp (采盟), which runs Taiwan Duty Free, could be fined up to NT$1 million (US$30,737) after the owner and employees took center stage in a photograph with government officials and the returning Premier12 baseball champions at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Monday evening. When Taiwan’s national baseball team arrived home fresh from their World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship victory in Tokyo, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) was at the airport with Chinese Professional Baseball League commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) to welcome back the team. However, after Hsiao and Tsai took a photograph with the team, Tasa Meng chairwoman Ku
RSS