The Ministry of National Defense has proposed a NT$1.19 billion (US$39.2 million) budget to increase the pay rate of 29,995 military personnel who were not included in a previous raise for combat troops, a ministry official said.
To boost enlistment and morale, units not included in the 2015 pay raise are to be classified as either “type one” or “type two” combat units, the official said.
The army’s 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion and the drone-flying squadrons of its Aviation and the Special Forces Command are among the units that are to receive better pay under the new plan, the official said.
The plan has been submitted to the Executive Yuan as a ministry priority and is to be implemented as soon as January next year if both it and the Legislative Yuan approve the proposal without alteration, the official said.
The previous pay increase for combat troops was implemented on April 1, 2015, but many units continue to experience recruitment shortages, the official said.
The exclusion of many units within brigade-level organizations is believed to be the cause of the problem, the ministry said.
To address the issue, the ministry devised the proposal to incorporate the units that were left out of the original plan, the official said.
Under the proposal, the army’s drone squadrons and the 101st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion are to be included in the “type one” classification, increasing members’ pay by NT$5,000 per month, the official said.
Other units to be incorporated as type one include the navy’s 256th Submarine Unit’s support squadron; the Hai Feng Shore-Based Anti-Ship Missile Group squadrons; and the marines’ Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol Unit’s reconnaissance teams and underwater demolition team, the official said.
Units within the army’s brigades and corps that did not receive pay raises, such as chemical warfare, communication, electronics and information, engineering, maintenance, sanitation, military police and training, are to be classified as “type two” combat units, increasing the soldiers’ monthly pay by NT$3,000.
The infantry, armor and artillery units organic to the battalion headquarters of the army and the marines are to be reclassified from type two to type one, a ministry official said.
The official said the reclassification of formations from type two to type one would add an estimated NT$62 million to the ministry’s annual budget, which is not included in the NT$1.19 billion figure.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS