The People First Party on Saturday threatened to withdraw from the Economic Development Advisory Conference if it has no say in setting the conference's agenda.
The conference's finance panel vetoed a proposal to ban government intervention in the stock market during a meeting on Friday. The PFP responded by saying it would ask all opposition parties to withdraw from the conference unless President Chen Shui-bian (
"The proposal to ban the government and four state-run funds from intervening in the stock market was vetoed by government officials and business representatives close to the Presidential Office," said Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the PFP's policy research center.
"The advisory conference is very important to the future development of Taiwan's economy. And financial problems and cross-strait issues have been listed as the two major topics for this conference. The proposals on banning stock market intervention using government funds have been addressed and passed by the conference's preparatory meetings held earlier," Chang explained.
According to the rules passed by the conference, a panel does not have the power to veto proposals passed in preparatory meetings, said New Party lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao (
Lai said the finance panel vetoed a number of proposals on Friday, such as banning government intervention in the foreign exchange market, requiring state-owned banks to be privatized and establishing a firewall between the banking sector and securities market when stock certificates are used as collateral.
After watching their proposals being rejected, some panel members representing opposition parties, including Norman Yin (殷乃平), a National Cheng Chi University banking professor, Hsu Chen-ming (許振明), a National Taiwan University economics professor and Fei Horng-tai (費鴻泰), deputy speaker of Taipei City Council, walked out of the meeting.
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