President William Lai (賴清德) is to launch three issues-oriented committees to address climate change, civil defense and health at a press conference today to mark his first month in office, sources said yesterday.
Each committee is to consist of representatives from the government, academia and the private sector, with Lai personally presiding over each committee’s monthly meeting, the sources said.
The committees are to map out strategies for national development, gather people from the government, academia and the private sector for dialogue, and deepen cooperation with members of the international community, the sources said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The idea to set up the committees was the result of close consultations between Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), representing a shared determination across all ministries to push reforms by bringing together forces from the government and the private sector, they said.
It echoes Lai’s presidential inaugural speech on May 20 in which he said Taiwan’s future is “not just the future of our nation, but the future of the world,” the sources said.
It is also a response to the trend of setting up a global framework of democratic alliances to boost defense resilience, they said.
The leaders of the G7 nations in a recent joint statement expressed support for Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and, for the fourth consecutive year, stressed the importance of stability and peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The ties between Taiwan and European counties are also warming up and artificial intelligence chip giants, including Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), at the Computex exhibition earlier this month presented discourses on a technological and economic revolution centering on Taiwan, and the planned committees are Lai’s response to this emerging global framework, they said.
Lai also attaches great importance to people’s livelihood and wants a “health committee” to create a “healthier Taiwan,” they said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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