Due to added production lines, the nation is poised to become second in the world in terms of mask production at the end of this month or early next month, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
Su made the remarks while inspecting mask manufacturing facilities at Nonwoven Converting Machinery Co (權和機械) in New Taipei City.
Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the nation is set to finish adding 60 mask production lines to its current production capacity at the end of this month or early next month, Su said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
By then, the nation would be able to produce about 10 million masks per day, he said.
Nine of the production lines would launch today, he added.
Disease prevention is a joint effort, Su said, thanking the company and the Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association for helping to boost mask production amid an outbreak of COVID-19 in China.
He also thanked pharmacists for cooperating with the government’s mask rationing policy and for maintaining order when people line up to buy masks, as well as postal workers for delivering masks to every corner of the nation.
All of these efforts have enabled prices to be capped at an affordable NT$5 per mask and kept the number of confirmed cases low, compared with neighboring countries, Su said, adding that the nation’s tenacity has shone through under such harsh conditions.
Asked whether a planned budget for an Executive Yuan program to give people shopping coupons would be sufficient to boost sales after the outbreak is brought under control, Su said that he would ask Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) and Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) to determine whether to increase the budget for the coupons or expand their scope.
For example, aside from markets and stores, the coupons could be made redeemable at concert and exhibition venues, whose business has also suffered from the outbreak, he said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has proposed a tentative budget of NT$2 billion (US$66.6 million) for the coupons, which would translate to each citizen receiving between NT$100 and NT$200 in discounts.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao
RSS