Amid rising complaints over reports on the soaring prices of daily necessities, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Chang said official statistics showed that Taiwan's exports in September amounted to US$22.2 billion, "a new high" in the nation's export record.
Official records also showed growth in the nation's stock and real estate markets over the past two months, Chang said, adding that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has been putting greater emphasis on both economic development and the nation's dignity.
"Over the past five months, we have indeed put more focus on these two agendas. We made efforts to raise Taiwanese consciousness and seek Taiwan's entry to the UN. We also announced one beneficial policy every week in a bid to fight for Taiwan's economic sustainability," Chang said.
"In our efforts to promote economic development, we also gave consideration to [the rights of] laborers, veterans and poor families, and to social justice," Chang said, adding that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) both give weight to these two issues.
SPECULATION
Chang made the remarks in response to a question from the press on whether Chen and Hsieh were at odds with each other over cross-strait economic policies.
The speculation came after Chen said on Tuesday that he would not relax the 40 percent cap on investment in China although Hsieh had just proposed to ease the regulations the previous day.
Chang dismissed the media speculation yesterday, saying that Hsieh had simply been stressing the economic issue on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lashed out at Chen yesterday over his remark on Thursday in response to a protester who shouted at him during Chen's visit to an audio equipment exhibition in Taipei.
When Chen was speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the exhibition, a male protester nearby yelled: "People can barely make a living."
The president at the time responded that he would respect the voice of the people, but at a separate setting later, he fired back, saying that "if the person who can barely make a living can still visit the audio equipment exhibition, Taiwan is not bad [afterall]."
KMT legislators yesterday panned the president as a "fatuous and self-indulgent ruler" and urged him to "show more empathy" for the people.
KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
"The harsh remarks made by those politicians are ruining the country's core values. The government is living in its small world and has failed to understand the people's feelings and expectations," Ma said during a media gathering in Taipei.
As a political party that was developed from the grassroots, Ma said he was astonished to learn that the DPP has turned into a party that did not listen to the people's voice anymore.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its