Control Yuan gets earful on reform

Agriculture council Vice Chairman Huang Chin-jung (黃欽榮) said that farmers and fishermen still favor doing business with such credit units.

According to Huang, a recent poll showed that around half of the loans to farmers and fishermen are borrowed from such credit units. Accordingly, he suggested "a national-level agriculture professional bank might help resolve problems by conducting a lending business with special consideration for farmers' and fishermen's needs."

Wu Jung-chieh (吳榮杰), a professor at the agricultural economics department of National Taiwan University, said that everyone agrees that reform is needed, but different approaches are favored by different groups.

Wu supports the idea of establishing a national-level agricultural bank to replace credit departments.

"Establishing a comprehensive agricultural economic system is based on the belief that the agricultural economy differs from general economic affairs. Thinking about the problem from a purely financial management point of view to carry out reform is inappropriate," he said.