The news from the Legislative Yuan is usually not good. What happened on Friday, however, was nothing short of excellent. Lawmakers passed a spate of bills in a bid to strengthen the nation's economic, financial and social welfare development.
But the most welcome of all was the third-reading of the Organic Law of Labor Pension Funds Supervisory Commission (
Following the passage of the law, the approximately NT$140.71 billion (US$4.281 billion) worth of funds as of Feb. 9 will be allowed to be invested in stocks, bonds and derivatives both locally and abroad, instead of being deposited at banks at a much lower level of interest income.
In a way, the legislature's across-the-board support for this organic law was as impressive as its well-known defiant and confrontational behavior toward the Democratic Progressive Party administration.
Just before the Lunar New Year holiday, both the legislature and the Executive Yuan were still engaged in incessant bickering on a host of matters, including the government's annual budget. How was it then, that lawmakers suddenly realized that the pension funds supervisory commission law was "urgent" legislation, considering that they have been sitting on it for nearly two years?
The short answer -- ignoring the Cabinet's concession to make the new commission subject to lawmakers' surveillance -- was that the year-end legislative elections have forced lawmakers to choose between partisan confrontation and their constituents.
Now that the legislature has approved the law, the responsibility of ensuring the nation's 4.29 million wage earners the right to pension benefits while boosting Taiwan's capital markets will fall on the Council of Labor Affairs' shoulders. It must decide the composition of the new commission and hire the professionals to make the investments.
The new commission will have 21 members, including labor union and corporate representatives, government officials, academics and professionals. But the appointment of its chairperson is crucial -- and the council and the government must ensure they find the right person for this position, rather than treating the post as a political bargaining chip.
The labor pension funds are allowed to invest more than 40 percent of their total capital into the stock market. Given its huge fund size and investment complexity, the commission must also hire professionals and entrust private fund companies -- through discretionary managed account services -- to manage the funds.
But the question is what happens next. Even though the law has set a minimum guaranteed return requirement, wage earners should realize that there's no guarantee of a 4 percent return rate annually, despite council Chairman Lee Ying-yuan's (
Employees joining the new pension fund scheme are able to examine the investment performance under their individual accounts, but in the longer term they should also be allowed to decide on the type of investments they feel best fit their needs or to make asset reallocations. This will not only enhance the pension scheme's attractiveness, it will also help develop Taiwan's asset management market.
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