The Cabinet is considering the possibility of raising the salaries of civil servants, Government Information Office Minister Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday.
Factors that must be taken into account before deciding whether to increase wages include economic growth in the fourth quarter of last year as well as tax revenue, trade and debt in the first two months of this year, he said.
There have been calls for the government to increase civil servants’ salaries after the economy grew 12 percent in the first three quarters of last year, with growth projected to reach a 23-year high of 9.98 percent for the full year.
Supporters of the proposal believe the move would encourage the private sector to follow suit.
While addressing the Commonwealth Economic Forum earlier in the day, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised that the government would not lay off employees this year and reiterated that the Cabinet was seriously considering raising their pay.
Following Ma’s announcement, the Presidential Office later said the president hoped the executive branch would conduct a thorough evaluation of such a possibility.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said whether civil servants would get a pay raise this year would depend on the assessment conducted by the executive branch and that the president merely “reiterated the government’s position.”
“Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is cautiously optimistic about such a possibility, but it will still depend on the overall economy and state finances,” Lo said.
The executive branch particularly needed to take into consideration the economic growth of the fourth quarter and the tax revenues collected this month and next month as well as import and export trade and government debt, Lo said.
Following the special municipality elections on Nov. 27 last year, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the popular vote by about 400,000 votes, some KMT legislators called on the Cabinet to ensure benefits for civil servants to make sure that the KMT retained its support base in that segment. Some attributed the party’s poor performance to disgruntled civil servants.
Ma also told the forum that Taiwan was aiming to be a driving force behind economic integration in the region and a hub of higher education in a new rising Asia, amid a change in the order of the global economy.
As one of the Asian countries that have experienced a rapid recovery from the global financial crisis, Taiwan has also achieved a “recovery with Taiwanese characteristics,” Ma said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS