The Cabinet’s four-page budget report on a COVID-19 relief program is “crude,” the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) said yesterday, adding that a national vaccine task force should be created to ensure Taiwan’s access to new vaccines.
The TPP caucus received an Executive Yuan report dated Monday that describes the government’s plans for COVID-19 relief, TPP Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that the report was compiled at the party’s request during legislative reviews in May.
Citing the report, Chiu said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ NT$420 billion (US$14.75 billion) budget includes NT$1.7 million in personnel costs, NT$15.3 million in operational expenses and NT$170 million in subsidies.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
However, the report was just four pages long, and did not explain the purpose of the expenditures or itemize individual expenses, he said.
The pandemic is showing no sign of improvement in other countries and instead appears to have become part of the normal state of affairs, he said.
Should current trends persist, the pandemic would increase the strain on financial institutions, while the government’s measures to stabilize banks and aid debtors cannot go on indefinitely, Chiu said.
The government should exercise fiscal discipline and monitor banks’ liquidity levels to avoid a surge in bad debt, he said.
TPP caucus whip Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) said that the party supported the relief program after making clear its expectation that the government would present a full account of it.
“However, our caucus has received an implementation report of a scant few pages,” Lai said. “I wonder if the optimism [the report] espouses is an accurate representation of reality.”
Businesses continue to lay off employees, despite subsidies, she said, adding that the Ministry of Labor should consider policies that would directly help workers through the Lunar New Year.
TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) said that the pandemic is expected to worsen over winter, but Taiwan’s relatively successful management of the virus means that the nation might be prioritized lower than Western nations in vaccine distribution programs.
Taiwan has not developed its own COVID-19 vaccine to date, Tsai said.
The government should create a national vaccine task force to boost support for domestic pharmaceutical firms involved in vaccine research, in addition to striving for foreign vaccines, she said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,