The government is to pay contractors NT$280 million (US$8.87 million) after suspending a digital identification program in 2021, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Asked whether that contradicted his remarks last year that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill after the program was suspended, Chen said the government was able to reduce the payout from the NT$1 billion the contractors originally demanded.
That makes the circumstances different from when he claimed the public would not have to pay for the program, he said.
Photo: screen grab from Ministry of the Interior Web site
The digital identification program is to remain suspended until such time that an independent commission on personal data protection can be established, Chen said.
The commission has to be set up for the government to comply with the Constitutional Court’s ruling that an independent personal data watchdog must be created, he said.
Separately yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that the government should be held accountable for the loss of taxpayers’ money.
“Making a policy mistake is worse than corruption,” Chu said. “The important thing here is that there has not been an investigation to find the person responsible.”
Additional reporting by Tsai Tsun-hsun
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