More than half of the people surveyed in a recent opinion poll by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會) said that they were satisfied with the performance of Premier Yu Shyi-kun one-and-a-half years into his term, a 2 percent improvement on the total six months ago.
The telephone survey, conducted between June 23 and July 24 involving 1,086 adults, found that 58 percent of the respondents were satisfied with Yu's performance, while 23 percent said they were not.
As for the overall performance of the government, 45 percent of the people polled said that they were satisfied, while 35 percent said they were not. The approval rating represents a 3 percent increase compared to six months ago.
In terms of what government achievements they were most satisfied with over the past one and a half years, 76 percent of the respondents said the government's efforts in environmental protection, 63 percent said the medical and hygiene areas, and 61 percent said the safeguarding of basic human rights.
Respondents said the government's efforts involving educational reforms were what they were most dissatisfied with -- recording a total of 68.2 percent of votes. It was followed by the government's economic performance (63.2 percent) and social security (46.3 percent).
Regarding illegal street car racing, nearly 70 percent of the respondents said it was a serious problem, while about 19 percent said it was not.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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