President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the nation’s loss-plagued pension funds could not and would not go bankrupt, as he pledged to come up with a pragmatic, feasible reform program in January amid complaints by opposition parties about his approach to resolving the problems.
After meeting with Premier Sean Chen (陳冲), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中) on the thorny issue, Ma said at a press conference that his administration would tackle the matter in a responsible and cautious manner because many people have a stake in the sustainability of the pension system.
“We’ll address the issue in a transparent and gradual way, with a clear goal, after extensive communications with various social sectors,” Ma said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
He said the major problems with the pension system were insufficient funding and unequal distribution of benefits among different professions and different generations.
An overhaul of the system is necessary and urgent, he said.
“The work may be tough and complex, but we can no longer drag our feet because the flawed system could hurt our fiscal health and affect the well-being of public and private-sector employees, and even society as a whole,” Ma said.
In the meeting between the heads of the three branches of government, decisions were made about the division of responsibilities on pension fund reforms and a timeframe for the overhaul, Ma said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused Ma of enacting “pseudo reform” of various pension programs and criticized his refusal to hold a national affairs conference to resolve the issue.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) reiterated his call for a national affairs conference, which Ma previously turned down, saying that Ma’s plan would be difficult, time-consuming and inefficient.
Ma also omitted mentioning the 18 percent preferential interest rate and the year-end bonuses for retired public servants in his meeting, which made his pledge a “pseudo reform,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.
The exclusion of the preferential interest rate and the year-end bonuses would likely create more social instability and conflict between different generations, occupations and social groups, Pan said.
The DPP had reiterated its call for a national affairs conference because it would gather together people from all parts of society for comprehensive discussion on the fiscal problems the country is facing so that Taiwanese could comprehensively deal with their own “fiscal cliff,” Pan said.
In Greater Tainan, former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also called on Ma to convene a national affairs conference, adding that Ma’s excuse for refusing to hold one was unacceptable.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) called a national affairs conference in 1990 because the legislature was not functioning well and the present situation is very similar to that time, Tsai said, because both the administrative and legislative branches of government have failed to meet challenges and solve problems.
“We need to achieve a consensus on reform now more than ever through a collaboration of all forms of social power, as well as mitigating a potential conflict of interest during the reform process by holding a national affairs conference,” Tsai said.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS