President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended the nation’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) following the recent signing of a fisheries agreement with Japan, and said the government would welcome any efforts by China to negotiate a fisheries agreement with Taiwan.
In an interview with Hit FM radio, Ma dismissed concerns that China was upset about the agreement and said the pact aimed to protect the rights of Taiwanese fishermen while setting aside sovereignty disputes.
“It is my administration’s duty to strive for improved rights for our fishermen. [The agreement] focused on protecting and maintaining those rights … We would also welcome China if it wished to discuss a fisheries agreement,” he said.
The agreement with Japan, signed last month, allows fishing vessels from Taiwan and Japan to operate in a 70,000km2 zone without being subject to the jurisdiction of the other side, with Taipei being granted an additional fishing zone of 4,800km2 outside of Taiwan’s temporary enforcement line.
However, the agreement does not apply to waters within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) — a state’s territorial waters — surrounding the Diaoyutais, sparking concern among legislators over a perceived failure to insist on the nation’s sovereignty over the islands.
When asked to comment on the economy, Ma acknowledged that growth in the first quarter of 1.54 percent fell short of the government’s estimate of 3.26 percent, and said his administration will work to increase growth by promoting consumption and increasing exports.
The president argued that the nation’s economic growth is still better than that of South Korea and some other Asian nations, and said that the government will provide solutions to the current growth slowdown within a month.
As to disputes over the government’s pension reform proposals, Ma continued to defend the reforms and dismissed proposals made by lawmakers for the government to raise the maximum insurance salary for private-sector workers, which currently stands at NT$43,900.
A number of lawmakers jointly submitted a three-point proposal: Raise the maximum insurance salary for private-sector workers; exclude private-sector retirees who receive a monthly pension of less than NT$32,160 — which is the minimum monthly payment for retired civil servants — from the current reform package; and establish a uniform starting year for the reform plan for both public-sector and private-sector workers.
Ma said that raising the maximum insurance salary would be more beneficial for workers with higher incomes and insisted that the government’s proposed labor reforms would be fairer.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS