Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayors and county commissioners yesterday issued a joint statement urging the passage of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program bill, which has been stalled in the legislature, while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ordered the DPP to make a concerted effort to ensure the bill’s passage.
In a rare move, all of the DPP’s mayors and county commissioners urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to stop obstructing the passage of the eight-year NT$882.4 billion (US$29.15 billion) program, with the mayors of the four DPP-ruled special municipalities attending a news conference advocating the program.
“We are not advocating the program for our own cities’ development ... but for national unity and [efficient] resource allocation. Parties are urged to cease irrational opposition for the sake of the nation’s economy and equal regional development,” Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The infrastructure program — which consists of the construction of railways, aquatic infrastructure, renewable energy, digital infrastructure and urban development — would play a key role in transforming industry, bridging the rural-urban development gap, and improving living quality and national competitiveness, Chen said.
The plan, with a focus on railway construction in cities outside Taipei and New Taipei City, would help develop central and southern cities, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) said.
The government has invested NT$1.2 trillion in Mass Rapid Transit construction in Taipei and New Taipei City, but central and southern Taiwan has not been financially supported to develop transport systems, Lai said.
The lack of infrastructure in Tainan results in population outflow and an aging population. The infrastructure program would solve that development inequality, Lai said.
The program is a government-led investment in the domestic market to boost the nation’s economy when the global economy has stagnated, Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) rolled out the “Love Taiwan 12 Major Construction Plans,” which were not opposed in the legislature, although there was criticism of the efficiency of the projects, Lin said.
The planned budget for railway construction in the program is about NT$300 billion, just one-fourth of the budget allocated to Taipei and New Taipei City, and the program would address “transportation justice,” Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said.
KMT Taichung and Taoyuan legislators, despite having expressed approval of the program during negotiations with the mayors, are nevertheless actively involved in obstructing the review, Lin and Cheng said.
“The KMT has ‘kidnapped’ its lawmakers who expressed approval of the program [and the hijacking] would hold back the KMT’s development,” Cheng said.
Meanwhile, the president ordered her administration and DPP lawmakers to take immediate action to ensure the passage of the bill, despite the opposition.
“The public has entrusted us with administrative responsibility and the majority of legislative seats, so we have an obligation to move the nation forward,” Tsai said.
The infrastructure program and pension reform are the top priority bills for this legislative session, because they invest in and relieve the financial burden of next generation, she said.
“The KMT’s opposition is confusing. We have not seen the KMT identify which of the ‘Forward-looking’ program projects they are against,” Tsai said.
She asked the DPP caucus to ensure that other key legislation, including draft amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例), as well as draft bills on the regulation of nonprofit organizations, rental housing development and foreign recruitment, are passed by the end of the year, if not in this legislative session, which is expected to recess at the end of this month.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique