The Ministry of the Interior recently invited relevant government bodies including the Min-istry of Finance and city and county governments to discuss the drafting of the Elderly Wel-fare Subsidy Temporary Law (老人福利津貼暫行條例) in the hope of implementing the subsidies for the elderly program by Jan. 1, 2002.
Although senior citizens who receive other forms of government subsidies and some who have high incomes are excluded from the program, the total annual budget for the program is estimated at NT$16 billion. The plan is supposed to provide each eligible person with a NT$3,000 monthly stipend. Ironically, how-ever, the DPP government re-mains unable to find the financial resources for the program.
I have the following concerns about the ministry's move. First, as Taiwan faces a rising unemployment rate and an economic downturn, the government's priorities should be to facilitate employment and improve the business environment. This program will crowd out the budgets for economic development and unemployment benefits.
According to an opinion poll published on June 26, about 65 percent of respondents believe the government's top priority should be economic development. Less than 10 percent believe it should be social welfare. When asked to choose between social welfare programs, they said they believed vocational training and subsidies for companies employing unemployed laborers were the most important.
Second, in drafting the government's budget for fiscal year 2002, the Directorate General of Budgets, Accounting and Statistics has made an initial readjustment of annual revenue and expenditure figures in the ex-pectation of negative growth. The budgetary deficit is estimated at NT$282.2 billion. About NT$100 billion of the deficit is considered regular expenditure, and the directorate is currently looking for resources to finance it. The Executive Yuan has said that the total financial deficit may exceed NT$500 billion. At a time when the nation's finances are in such bad shape, it is hard not to link the government's move toward implementing such a major social welfare program with the year-end elections.
Third, the ministry estimates that over 1.5 million of Taiwan's 1.93 million senior citizens already benefit from subsidy programs. The target of this new subsidy does not include low-income seniors, farmers or retired laborers, as they are already covered by other programs. The 400,000-plus seniors who will benefit therefore are in fact elderly people living in some affluence. Why should the ministry be concerned with the livelihood of these particular people?
Fourth, the government withdrew the bill for the program last year because some legislators proposed expanding the number of recipients, which would have substantially increased the costs. In an election year, is it appro-priate for the ruling party to propose such a highly controversial bill? If the legislature supports the bill but tries to increase the number of recipients or the amount of the subsidy, it will be a repeat of the 84-hour-work-week fiasco in which the DPP's proposal to cut hours was further reduced by opposition lawmakers.
A responsible ruling party needs to have long-term plans and carefully consider bills that involve tens of billions of NT dollars, such as the National Pension Program (
Hsu Chen-min is a professor of economics at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Eddy Changs
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under