Premier calls for policy timeline

Premier Chang Chung-hsiung (張俊雄) said he plans to ask the Executive Yuan for a timetable for the implementation of policy decisions made at the Economic Develop-ment Advisory Conference (經發會), local Chinese-language media reported yesterday.

A total of 314 decisions were made by the five panels at the conference, which covers investment, cross-strait, finance, employment and industrial issues.

The news comes following a Monday night dinner meeting at the Presidential Office with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on how to revive confidence in Taiwan's economy.

At the meeting, Chang and Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jing-pyng (王金平) said they would support proposals made by the conference and set a timetable to execute those proposals in the next few months.

Wang said additional meetings of the legislature will be held to process conclusions of the conference.

A general meeting of the conference will be held later this week from Aug. 24 to Aug. 26.

Following the opinions expressed by the two dozen members of the conference, which included five vice chairmen and more than a dozen conveners of the five conference panels, President Chen said the economy's current problem is "a combination of [local] industry restructuring and an international economic recession."

Chen said the proposals made by the conference are meant not only to cure problems in the short term, but will also address long-term and mid-term solutions.

Lai Shi-bao (賴士葆), a New Party legislator and a convener of the conference, said he also made an appeal to the Executive Yuan for a timetable and specifics on cross-strait issues.

Chang said his team would respond quickly to the call for action.

"The Executive Yuan will start reviewing deregulation on executive orders starting this Wednesday. Every week there should be a report submitted by related ministries, and progress will be monitored by the Council for Economic Planning and Development," Chang said.

Wang also set a timetable for the review of the 314 proposals.

"The next session of Legislative Yuan will be held from Sept. 18 to the end of October. Every Thursday, there will be an additional meeting held [for the conference's proposals] and the meeting time will be extended to 10pm."

Wang added that "the Legislative Yuan will do it's best to discuss the proposals which had a consensus at the conference, and finalize the financial supervisory board and an amendment of the public debt law left over from the last session.

"We hope that [all of the policies] can be passed by the end of October."