President Chen Shui-bian (
"Reform might bring some difficulties, but these difficulties can't be an excuse to delay reform," Chen said at a Government Reform Committee meeting yesterday.
"Taiwan's economy will develop further only when the government has successfully reformed itself," he said.
Chen was speaking at the seventh meeting of the committee to review its performance during the past year.
His remarks come following delays in the Legislative Yuan on passing the committee's reform proposals.
"Government reform is a cross-party and cross-department project," Chen said. "Reform can only be accomplished if the proposals are implemented by the administrative departments and strongly supported by the Examination Yuan and the Legislative Yuan."
The opposition has boycotted plans to reduce the size of the Cabinet and the legislature, putting into doubt the ability of the committee to stick to its deadline of May 20, 2004, the last day of Chen's term, to get its proposals passed.
In the year since it was created, the committee has finalized five proposals to reform the government and the legislature. The plans include cutting the number of Cabinet-level entities to 23 from 36 and the number of legislative seats to 150 from 225.
The committee has also proposed introducing a "single-member district, two vote" system for legislative elections and extending the term of legislators from three years to four.
Central to the reform plans for the government is dividing Cabinet agencies into four major areas that will include 18 agencies for general affairs, two executive management agencies, three policy-integration entities and a small number of other agencies, as required by the government.
In addition, the Cabinet-level National Palace Museum would report directly to the Presidential Office.
While the proposals to reform the government require only the agreement of the legislature, reforming the legislature requires an amendment to the Constitution.
Cutting the number of legislative seats and altering the election system would require the approval of more than 75 percent of the legislators present at a plenary session of the Legislative Yuan, which itself would require the participation of more than 75 percent of the lawmakers.
Elections would then have to be held for the National Assembly, now an ad hoc institution which meets only to discuss amendments to the Constitution. Three-quarters of the assembly has to approve the bill for it to pass.
In a press conference before the committee meeting, Secretary-General to the Presidential Office Chen Shih-meng (
The committee comprises 25 representatives from the Cabinet, business and academia and is chaired by the president. It was founded on the basis of conclusions reached at the Economic Development Advisory Conference held last year.
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