President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday expressed his "grave concern" and instructed government departments to embark on relief work, in the wake of yesterday's early morning earthquake.
At 6am, the president assigned secretary-general of the Presidential Office Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to attend a briefing made by the response center under the National Fire Administration (消防署).
"The president has been well informed and given all the related information. He has given executive departments full authority to handle the relief efforts," Chang said.
Chen will not inspect the quake-stricken areas for the time being, according to Chang.
Soon after the quake, Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) -- who is still recuperating in the Veterans General Hospital -- phoned secretary-general of the Cabinet Wei Chi-lin (魏啟林), Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun and Minister of National DefenseWu Shih-wen (伍世文) to coordinate relief efforts.
At the press conference held in the hospital later, Tang said the Executive Yuan would allocate NT$200 million to the prevention of mudslides.
Since the earthquake did not cause serious casualties and damage, the Executive Yuan would assist, rather than lead relief efforts by local governments, Tang said.
Obviously concerned about mudslides triggered by heavy rain in the coming few days, Tang urged local governments not to ignore their potential danger.
He called for people who lived in areas with a risk of mudslides to temporarily leave their homes and seek shelter in a safe place.
Directed by the premier, the Ministry of National Defense established an emergency response center to gather first-hand information of the damage caused by the quake.
The command center for the tenth legion of the army deployed in central Taiwan would join relief efforts to prevent landslides, Tang said.
Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (
Chang urged people to stay alert and take care because of after-shocks and mudslides.
Chang also called on the Ministry of the Interior in central Taiwan to examine the extent of damage in areas affected by the 921 quake.
Yesterday morning Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) visited the Central Weather Bureau for a brief on the weather situation.
Yeh said the jolt yesterday was an after-shock of the 921 earthquake and advised people not to visit mountainous areas in case of mudslides triggered by heavy rain.
The chairman of the Council of Agriculture Chen Hsi-huang (陳希煌) formed a "disaster prevention center" yesterday morning.
Also, after an emergency meeting at the council, Chen visited the quake-stricken area. Chen said the council would start preparing for the evacuation of people in mudslide-prone areas and complete road repairs soon.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS