After wading through months of controversy, the Coast Guard Administration was finally inaugurated yesterday in a ceremony attended by government officials and lawmakers.
Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), speaking at the ceremony which was held at a former military camp in Taipei's suburban Mucha, said it had been urgent for Taiwan to establish an agency incorporating all coast guard-related resources for the sake of national security.
"Coastal defense is especially important, given that Taiwan is under constant military threat from China," Siew said.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I have to admit that our coastal defense had some serious problems in the past. But I expect the newly established administration to function as well as it was designed," Siew said.
The coast guard's new director, Yao Kao-chiao (
The ministerial-level Coast Guard Administration combines the coast guard command of the military, the marine police under the National Police Administration and certain portions of the customs office under the Ministry of Finance.
"The priority task of the coast guard is to reduce the rampant business of smuggling people or cargo by sea. This must be curbed, since it poses a threat not only to social order but also national security," Yao said.
"We will seek to establish four defense lines, starting from 24 nautical miles off the coast, using patrol boats of various sorts. If these function well, the workload of coast guard personnel on land will be greatly reduced," he said.
If that happens, Yao said, the administration will consider reducing its personnel, which is currently around 21,000.
"We will also seek to improve our law enforcement on land. We will not force fishermen to concentrate in a certain area for several hours only for inspection of their ships," Yao said. "We believe most of the fishermen are good citizens and have never been engaged in smuggling.
"We will also try other more effective methods such as strengthening our monitoring of fishermen who have prior records of smuggling," he said.
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