KMT slams government's alleged plans for co-ops

The KMT yesterday condemned plans the government was reportedly considering to reform the financial institutions of local farmers' and fishermen's associations, saying the government's goal was to eliminate these institutions.

"What the government should do is try to revive the economy and restore the country's prosperity. It's not the right way to target the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations," KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) told a weekly meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday denied the reports that the government was planning to phase out the associations' credit departments, many of which have very high bad-loan ratios.

Lien instructed the party's legislative caucus to send a letter to the Ministry of Finance immediately to demand a postponement of the measures.

Lien said his party supports financial reforms but opposes achieving the goal with "radical and crude means."

Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), vice speaker of the Legislative Yuan and former chairman of the Cabinet's Council for Economic Planning and Development, said that the government has earmarked NT$1.5 trillion to offset the overdue loans of local financial institutions, but that overdue loans are not the real problem in Taiwan's economy.

According to Chiang, some "non-economic factors" such as President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remarks defining Taiwan and China as "one countries on each side" of the Taiwan Strait are responsible for the sluggishness of the country's stock market and economy.

To show its support for continuing the operations of the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations, the KMT invited 34 association representatives to attend yesterday's committee meeting.

Chen Min-chi (陳明吉), secretary-general of the National Training Institute for Farmers' Organizations (中華民國農訓協會), said the association representatives will petition lawmakers next Tuesday to pressure the Ministry of Finance to postpone the new measures.

Otherwise, Chen said, farmers' and fishermen's associations nationwide will stage a large-scale demonstration to let their voices heard.

Leaders of these associations have long been considered as chief vote-getters for the KMT during elections.

Critics, meanwhile, attributed the high bad-loan ratio at credit departments run by the associations to their close ties to local politics, namely that they tend to become the "private treasuries" of politicians and even gangsters who control the associations.