The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a plan that lays out the government’s commitments, including measures to make political donations and the handling of personal data more transparent.
The National Development Council’s (NDC) 2025-2028 Open Government National Action Plan states five key challenges to address: environment and climate change, digital governance, inclusivity, anti-corruption and access to information.
The seven commitments listed in the plan include enhancing transparency in political donations and personal data management, and ensuring cross-agency data sharing and public software development.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
They also include implementing climate change governance, reducing the digital divide for indigenous communities, increasing public participation for young Hakka people and providing safety information services for marine recreation.
Taiwan implemented its first open government national action plan in 2021 under the guidance of international standards and protocol.
The 2021 plan encouraged cooperation between the government and civil society through five major categories of commitments, to “promote open data and freedom of information, increase gender and ethnic group-inclusive dialogue, expand the public participation mechanisms, enhance integrity policies and implement anti-money laundering [measures].”
Proposals under review to enhance transparency in political donations include lowering the threshold for anonymous donations from NT$10,000, integrating government databases with oversight systems and encompassing donations made during political primaries, NDC Deputy Minister Kao Shien-quey (高仙桂) said after yesterday’s meeting at the Executive Yuan.
Civil groups have called for a reduction in the timeframe for disclosing political donations, currently set at nine months after an election, and requirements for large political donations to be disclosed before elections, Kao said.
The government would work with civil society to discuss these issues, which would serve as a basis for the Ministry of the Interior’s amendments to the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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