An ad hoc committee next year hopes to present viable options to legislators to relocate the Legislative Yuan, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) said on Sunday last week.
You said in an interview that he has instructed the committee to prepare the options — with an eye to present them by 2023 — as he has supported such ideas since he became speaker on Feb. 1, 2020.
Since 1960, the Legislative Yuan has been housed in a former dormitory of what was Taipei Second Girls’ Senior High School during the Japanese colonial period.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The building is leased to the legislature by the Taipei City Government and many of its adjunct buildings are of historical significance, posing a problem for potential expansion.
The committee has had two meetings and is to provide legislators with options once it has assessed opinions on the issue from different sectors and industries, You said.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉) said that the legislature should move as soon as possible.
A different image, location and environment would presage a change in mindset for legislators and the public’s expectations of them, Lin said.
Only a big shift at the legislature would induce a change in its systems and culture, he said.
On other issues, You said that the government would have achieved partial success if it pushes through a referendum for a constitutional amendment to lower the legal age for voting to 18.
Even if such a referendum did not pass, the government would have shown that there is an issue with the high threshold for constitutional amendments, he said.
Lowering the voting age is among several constitutional amendments that have been proposed at the legislature.
An ad hoc constitutional amendment committee was formed on Oct. 6, 2020.
Any proposed constitutional amendments would have to receive the backing of at least one-quarter of the 113 lawmakers to be forwarded to the procedural committee, which would assign them to the 39-member constitutional amendment committee for review.
For a proposal to be approved, it must be backed by at least half of the members of the constitutional amendment committee at a meeting attended by at least one-third of its members.
Then, it would have to be approved by at least three-quarters of the legislature, with at least three-quarters in attendance.
Should that threshold be met, the proposal would be put to a public referendum.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS