By Flora Wang
Staff Reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) held an extraordinary meeting with Cabinet officials at the Presidential Office last night to discuss the recent slide in the stock market.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told a press conference later that the Cabinet had briefed the president about the nation’s economic problems — including last week’s drop in the stock market and rising commodity prices — as well as proposals to tackle the situation.
Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) reported on the bank’s moves to stabilize commodity prices, while Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) briefed the president on the ministry’s response to rising utility and gasoline prices, Wang said.
The president praised the Cabinet and the central bank for the measures they had taken to rein in soaring prices, Wang said.
“The president believes that the recent rises in commodity prices result from the nation’s dependence on imported energy, but that Taiwan’s situation remains basically healthy,” Wang said.
Yesterday’s was the first meeting convened by the president on the matter.
The Executive Yuan has drawn up plans to increase the number of middle and low-income households that receive utility bill cuts, Wang said, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs will present “unprecedented” incentives today to encourage households to conserve electricity.
“The president acknowledged the Cabinet’s measures and urged members of the Cabinet to sympathize with the public and take care of those who cannot handle rising commodity prices,” Wang said.
Similar meetings with the president will be held at intervals, he said.
A Cabinet-level task force met on Saturday to discuss revitalizing the stock market after Friday’s nosedive to a five-month low.
The task force resolved to encourage domestic insurance companies — which control an estimated NT$8 trillion (US$262.7 billion) in capital — to invest in the stock market and the “i-Taiwan” 12 infrastructure projects.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) inspected the Kaohsiung International Airport yesterday ahead of the launching of cross-strait charter flights.
When approached for comment, Liu declined to reveal details of the task force’s proposals, saying only that the team would do the right thing at the right time.
The premier said he should refrain from making comments that could affect the stock market.
During the trip, Liu was criticized by Kaohsiung-area Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, who complained that only one charter flight from China would arrive in Kaohsiung on Friday, the first day of the flights.
“Kaohsiung residents could not help but shed tears when they found out the direct charter flight schedule for July 4,” KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) told Liu.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) told Liu “everyone seemed uninterested in Kaohsiung International Airport” when the schedule was made.
“[The schedule] was not something the central government could control. It had to do with the market on the one hand and with whether local governments made enough of an effort on the other,” Liu said.
Four Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government chiefs from the south protested on Friday against the schedule, including Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who said the schedule was unfair to the south.
Also See: EDITORIAL: The economy can't afford missteps
Also See: Government urges buying local stocks
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS