Taichung City's proposed Guggen-heim Museum branch became the focus of the legislature's extra session yesterday as legislators and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) expressed concern over the fate of the project, but Premier Yu Shyi-kun said the pan-blue camp had obstructed the entire process in the first place.
Guggenheim is one of the projects provisionally included in the Executive Yuan's NT$500 billion 10 key infrastructure projects package, but the Cabinet has only prepared NT$36.5 billion for two ongoing projects: the "third-generation highway" and MRT systems in northern, central and southern Taiwan.
"Premier Yu promised me that he will work hard to allow the special budget for the museum to be prepared for next year, and that it will be sent to the legislature for review together with the annual budget for next year," Wang said. "The premier also said that the government was willing to help the museum with capital flow until the end of this year."
Wang said that after the Executive Yuan submitted the budget plan to the legislature, he suggested to Yu that it make an amendment to include the budget for the Guggenheim.
He said that after the amendment was sent to the legislature, the amendment could be passed and the budget granted.
"But Premier Yu said to me that it was difficult to push the amendment through, that there was no rush now and that the Executive Yuan could wait a bit longer before it prepares the special budget for the museum next year," Wang said.
He also said Yu promised that if the museum needed funding for planning and other preparatory work, the government would be willing to help it.
Two days ago legislators from Taichung City also questioned Yu over why the Executive Yuan failed to prepare the budget for the museum this year.
high threshold
Yu blamed the situation on the pan-blue camp for setting a high threshold in the Special Statute for Increasing Investment in Public Construction (
Yu also said that the Taichung City Government had failed to complete a report on an alternative plan before a deadline this year.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
"The central government has failed to deliver on its promise and keeps on using different excuses," Hu said. "An alternative? What do we replace the Guggenheim Museum with? The British Museum?"
NO QUORUM
In related news, the extra legislative session continued yesterday with amendments to the controversial Farmers' Association Law (
The amendments, proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, aim to loosen up restrictions on convicted criminals taking up posts in the associations.
KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-po (
Most of the absent committee members were DPP legislators.
"The DPP caucus agreed to discuss the bills in the extra session during inter-party negotiations, and the bills that were to be discussed in the session were also agreed on," Hsu said.
"The committee did not have to pass the bill, but at the least we had to discuss them," Hsu said. "The DPP caucus cannot be selective about the bills they want to discuss or pass up on."
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS