The special bill on the five-year, NT$500 billion (US$14.8 billion) "10 New Construction Projects," the anti-terrorism act (
The procedural committee also rejected amendments to the Referendum Law (
The legislature's procedural committee held its last meeting yesterday to carve out the agenda for the last plenary session on Tuesday. The legislature's winter recess is due to start on Jan. 13.
Anticipating that the annual spending plan might not be approved before the end of the current session, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Due to time restraints we will try to reach a consensus during the cross-party negotiations before Friday's plenary session," Wang said.
High on the agenda of Tuesday's plenary session is a joint proposition by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) aimed at allaying the international community's concerns about President Chen Shui-bian's (
Also to be discussed in Tuesday's plenary session are the political donations bill (
Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"It's almost certain that the five-year special plan and special budget will not clear the legislature before the presidential election on March 30, because the legislature will soon go into recess again after it reconvenes on Feb. 24," Lin said.
The next legislative recess will start on Feb. 25 and end on March 19 to let lawmakers participate in the presidential campaign activities of their parties.
Vowing to appeal to public support for the five-year plan, Lin berated the opposition bloc for being inconsistent in their words and actions. He accused KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) of coercing pan-blue lawmakers to boycott the plan.
"Everything they do has a political motivation," Lin said. "While they've introduced a similar but bigger four-year, NT$2 trillion plan, they technically boycott the passage of the five-year, NT$500 billion plan we proposed."
Without the five-year plan, which is expected to create 64,000 jobs per year, the nation's economic growth rate might not reach the goal of 5 percent, Lin said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai