Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the key to saving state-owned enterprises from collapse was ending their spendthrift ways.
"State-owned companies, which had been labeled as money-losing propositions for the government because of their poor operational efficiency, achieved profound improvements over the past two years after overhauling their employee recruitment rules and applying a board-chairman system," Yu said during his administrative policy report to the legislature yesterday.
State-owned companies can turn loss into profit only by reforming their prodigal operational style. The management style of private companies and their emphasis on controlling costs has been introduced in many state-owned conglomerates, Yu said.
"Apart from the outstanding surpluses created by the operation of state-owned enterprises managed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, two state-run companies that were notorious for losing more than NT$10 billion each every year -- China Shipbuilding Corp and Tang Eng Iron Works Corp -- started to make a profit last year after implementing these reforms."
Yu was seeking lawmakers' support for the passage of reform bills that would help his administration to realize a seven-point vision: reforming the country's political system; financial management; monetary management; economic reform; regulation of the media industry; restructuring the government and educational reform.
The premier gave his presentation amid a large-scale protest staged by Chunghwa Telecom employees outside the legislature yesterday morning.
The employees took to the street two weeks after employees of the Taiwan Railway Administration rallied in front of the Presidential Office to express their dissatisfaction with government privatization plans.
The four-hour protest was quite orderly, except for an argument that erupted between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Ming-hsien (李明憲) and his counterpart in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻).
Lee claimed at the Legislative Yuan that the KMT had encouraged the telecom workers to hold yesterday's demonstration in the hope of disrupting the premier's presentation to the legislature.
Liu denied the accusation and told protesters that Lee had been criticizing them. The bickering lasted for about 15 minutes as the lawmakers took their argument into the legislative building.
Before the premier's presentation, lawmakers added an amendment to the draft referendum law presented by Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmakers to the list of bills awaiting a second reading.
The draft referendum bill excludes votes on issues such as the government budget, land taxes and other levies, stipends and government personnel matters.
The draft bill also allows for a referendum to be initiated by petition signed by more than 4 percent of the nation's electorate, two-thirds of legislators or an Executive Yuan resolution proposed by the president.
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