President Chen Shui-bian (
The president made the remarks while inspecting a flood control construction project at the Tali River (
The flood-control plan was drafted by the Cabinet in March and aims to resolve problems that have plagued Taiwan for several decades, including landslides, mudslides and flooding from heavy rains or tropical storms.
"I hope that the bill can be passed in the legislature, regardless of partisanship, as it is the common wish of everyone," Chen said.
As the Tali River project is part of the flood-control plan, Chen said that the plan is closely related to the development of central Taichung.
PRECEDENT
"It took the government NT$30 billion to regulate the Keelung River system in the past and thus solved the flooding problem in Northern Taiwan," the president said.
"Now we need the NT$80 billion flood-control plan to continue controls on the Tali river," he said.
After inspecting the river project, Chen attended the inauguration of an information technology show in Taichung City and donated NT$600,000 -- raised from the auction of computers, to the Taichung Life Association (
DEVELOPMENT
Chen said that the development of information technology, along with the establishment of the Taichung Science Park (
"In terms of the growth rate of the population, while the rate has decreased in Taipei City and remained the same in Kaohsiung City over the past five years, it increased in Taichung City during the same period," Chen said.
"Furthermore, in terms of the workforce participation rate, while the rate has increased from 56.8 percent to 58.7 percent over the past three years, the rate in Taipei and Kaohsiung stayed at the level of 55.8 percent," Chen said.
SITUATION IMPROVING
"The figures show that the development of Taichung has transcended that of the two special municipalities [Taipei and Kao-hsiung]," he said.
The development of central Taiwan had previously been ignored, with the government investing little in the area.
"The situation has improved in recent years, which is a very consoling thing," Chen said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods