Taiwan needs to make an immediate effort to tackle the problem posed by its aging population by establishing a comprehensive elderly-care system with significant government commitment, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in Miaoli City yesterday.
Tsai, the DPP presidential candidate, reiterated her platform on care for the elderly, saying that there needs to be three levels of care to form a sound system — home care, community-based care and institutional care — so that “no one would be left behind.”
There was no better place to elaborate the policy than Miaoli County, which has among the most rapidly aging populations in the nation, Tsai said on the second day of her four-day visit through high-concentration Hakka constituencies.
Photo: Ho Tsung-han, Taipei Times
Overall, she said, senior citizens account for 10.7 percent of Taiwan’s population of 23 million and the percentage is expected to increase to 16 percent by 2020.
If preschool children are taken into account, one in three Taiwanese would need social care services in the near future, Tsai said at a retirement home in a Miaoli City suburb.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has not been doing enough, nor has it been tackling the issue quickly enough, Tsai said, adding that Ma had dumped the “social safety net” program planned by the previous DPP administration.
If she were elected in January, Tsai said, her first priority would be improving medical care resources and the nation’s infrastructure, particularly in Miaoli County, before the eventual establishment of a comprehensive long-term social care system in 10 years.
Since “speed” would be crucial, she said, massive government resources would be deployed in the program in the first three years of her administration.
There should be as many publicly funded and publicly operated institutions as possible, while some of them could be publicly funded private institutions, she said.
Speaking earlier in the Lioudong (流東) community, located in Toufen Township (頭份), Miaoli County, Tsai said the community served as a model for community-based elderly care.
Dedicated volunteers in the close-knit community have helped retired and semi-retired senior citizens, most of which had worked as farmers, to work and pass down their expertise and cultural heritage to the younger generations, she said.
Liudong symbolized her vision for Taiwan’s rural communities in the future, which combine modern and advanced agricultural development, community-based elderly care and development of the local economy — three crucial elements in her domestic policy.
Tsai will be traveling through high-concentration Hakka areas in Taoyuan and Hsinchu counties today and tomorrow to drum up support for her presidential campaign after recent visits through the east and west coasts boosted her support, some sources said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,