President Chen Shui-bian's (
The survey was conducted by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) -- the Democratic Progressive Party's ally in the pan-green camp -- on 69 civic groups from May 5 through May 12.
The respondents gave the administration's overall performance a failing grade of 57.5 percent.
Ho Min-hao (
While 64 percent of respondents thought that the government has not worked hard enough to improve the nation's economy over the past six years, 72 percent were dissatisfied with the deteriorating law and order situation, the survey found.
Seventy-three percent of the respondents said they thought that the average citizen's life is not that good, and 63 percent said they were unhappy with the government's failure to take care of disadvantaged groups.
As many as 81 percent of the respondents doubted the integrity of officials in Chen's administration, and 90 percent think Chen should take responsibility for the corruption cases involving government officials that have occurred over the past six years.
Ninety-one percent of the respondents were supportive of the Cabinet's decision to suspend Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (
Meanwhile, 60 percent of respondents expressed their approval for Chen's move to adjust cross-strait economic policy to "active management, effective opening," with only 20 percent disagreeing with that adjustment.
In addition, 10 percent said that they were in favor of enacting a new constitution.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent