Critics are divided over the Cab-inet's NT$2.6 trillion, six-year national-development project to turn Taiwan into a "green silicon island" -- a nation devoted to clean high-tech industries.
Some say the project is aimed at winning support for the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration ahead of the 2004 presidential election. Others simply argue that the project is aimed at making Taiwan a better place.
"Its purpose is clearly to win the 2004 presidential contest, because the Chen administration has to show the public that it's determined to do something to deserve another four years in power," said Norman Yin (
Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤), legislative vice speaker and former chairman of the Cabinet's Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) under the KMT, expressed the same opinion.
"It's obvious that the introduction of the six-year project serves the purpose [of winning the presidential contest]," he said.
"While Beijing will play host to the Olympic Games in 2008, the DPP-led government has to show to both the world and its people that Taiwan, too, has a promising blueprint to look forward to and that the island deserves some media attention in the international arena."
But the DPP's Chen Po-chih (
"The six-year national project is definitely not designed to win the presidential election just two years away," Chen said.
"The idea of building a `green silicon island' had already been proposed when I chaired the CEPD. As we decided the ultimate goal of the project, the rest of plan kind of fell into place."
After 76 rounds of discussion and revision, the Cabinet finally approved the project on Wednesday.
The government hopes to create 700,000 new jobs, decrease unemployment from 5 percent today to 4 percent, boost GDP growth to 5 percent annually from 2.3 percent this year and devote up to 3 percent of Taiwan's GDP to research and development.
In addition, the Cabinet hopes the project will help develop at least 15 products or technologies that will rank among the world's best, double the current number of foreign tourists from 1 million to between 2 million and 5 million and increase the household use of broadband Internet services to 6 million homes.
To ensure the full implementation of the project, Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (
Hu Sheng-cheng (
Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) will oversee the talent cultivation plan, the creative industry development plan and the community construction plan.
Lin Sheng-feng (林盛豐) will take charge of plans to increase the number of tourists and the water and green construction plans.
Tsai Ching-yen (
Criticizing the six-year project as "nothing new," Yin said it is nothing but a "larger-scale version of the NT$810 billion public-construction project."
The project was introduced by former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"I don't see many innovative ideas in the project because most of it continues the NT$810 billion public-construction project, which didn't boost Taiwan's economy but instead" exacerbated the problem, Yin said.
Although some plans included in the six-year project, such as the talent-cultivation plan and the creative industry development plan, are considered to be new, Yin said they won't do much good to spur the nation's economy.
"As the government is already suffering from financial difficulties, it should spend its money more carefully in areas that can swiftly and directly boost the local economy," he said. "I don't see that big investment in cultural and humanity industries swiftly boosting the economy."
Although Yu pledged to implement the project to the full, Yin said he is skeptical.
"Who knows whether the DPP will still remain in power and Yu will still be the premier after the 2004 presidential election?" Yin said.
Chen, however, said that although it is possible that the DPP will lose power in the future, a good national development project should be mapped out from a long-term perspective.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner