Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (
The experimental system will be implemented in three battalions selected from three separate branches -- a motorized battalion of the army, an infantry battalion of the marine corps, and a guards battalion of the air force.
The military plans to enlist a total of 1,160 professional soldiers to man the three battalions, a figure worked out according to the current statistics for the amount of personnel in each battalion.
The starting monthly salary for each professional soldier is set at NT$23,485, nearly four times the pay of a current conscript, according to data provided by the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
The experimental program is estimated to cost NT$337 million a year, over three times the amount needed to man the three battalions with conscripts.
Minister Tang announced the program yesterday at a meeting of the defense committee of the legislature, where he reported on the feasibility of replacing the current conscription system with enlistment.
Tang said given that China has not renounced use of force against Taiwan, it is not appropriate to replace the conscription system with an enlistment one.
Tang promised, however, that the military will test the enlistment system to see whether it would work.
"If the system proves effective, we will raise the ratio of professional soldiers to conscripts year by year. By the time we acquire the projected number of professional soldiers, the service term of conscripts will be shortened," Tang said.
Tang said it is to best to keep the current conscription system while acquiring enlistment soldiers.
But some military officials are worried that the military may not be able to recruit enough professional soldiers because the proposed salary for each soldier is only NT$23,485 per month.
Lieutenant General Wu Ta-peng (吳達澎), director of MND's personnel department, called attention to the fact that a professional soldier in the US and Japan can earn an equivalent of NT$43,000 and NT$47,000 per month, respectively.
Meanwhile, Tang also announced that the military will scale down the armed forces to 300,000 in the years to come.
The figure is the lowest-ever that the MND has made public regarding its projected number of forces in the future.
Before this, the MND had only mentioned that it would reduce the number of the current 380,000 soldiers to 340,000 by 2006 in the next wave of personnel streamlining efforts. With the number of the armed forces at 300,000, the military expects it will be able to implement the enlistment system for soldiers.
"But we need another extra NT$80 billion to meet the increasing personnel costs resulting from a full enlistment system," Lieutenant General Wu said.
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