The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced that the Tao community of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) would receive NT$2.55 billion (US$83.6 million) in compensation after a government investigation found that they were unaware of plans to create the Lanyu nuclear waste disposal facility.
Ministry officials made the announcement at a news conference in Taitung attended by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The investigation “discovered the truth” and the compensation fulfills part of the government’s Aboriginal transitional justice project, Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
Tsai in 2016 instructed Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) to launch the investigation after receiving a complaint from Lanyu residents.
The probe found that the Tao community was not notified that the government was planning to establish the facility, the ministry said.
The compensation is to be disbursed under the Regulations on Development and Management of the Lands Reserved for Indigenous People (原住民保留地開發管理辦法), it said.
The funds would not be provided all at once, but rather in annual installments of NT$25 million, it added.
Lanyu Township Mayor Chiaman Chialamu said that residents were happy to hear the decision.
“Out of all the presidents who have visited Lanyu, only President Tsai listened,” Chiaman said.
However, he said that while the compensation is welcome, the nuclear waste must be removed from the island.
The township would select a board to oversee a foundation governing the funds, Chiaman said, adding that their use would require majority approval by residents.
Separately yesterday, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said that “today’s compensation has historic meaning for both the Executive Yuan and Lanyu.”
It is the first step toward finding historical truth and compensating Lanyu residents, she said.
The Executive Yuan yesterday exhibited declassified documents showing that in the 1970s, then-premiers Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and Sun Yun-hsuan (孫運璿) approved plans to build the facility and store nuclear waste on Lanyu without residents’ consent.
Additional reporting by Huang Pei-chun
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS