The nation's top economic policy planning official said yesterday that the government believes everyone can share in the benefits of economic growth, but this is dependent on long-term planning and policy work.
Hu Sheng-cheng (
The president, who is embroiled in a spate of corruption allegations implicating himself, his family members and senior aides, said in his hometown in Tainan County on Saturday that he will redouble his efforts in promoting investment in the country, create more job opportunities, reduce the income gap between urban and rural areas and rich and poor during the rest of his term.
Hu said that Taiwan has decent economic growth but would be hard pressed to raise wages due to the globalization trend as well as competition from China.
Because of this, coupled with the fact that wages are lagging behind economic growth, workers cannot feel the benefits of growth, he added.
He said that the government has made every effort to let everyone share the fruits of the nations development, and has in the past offered short-term employment projects as well as vocational training.
But he said the CEPD would look at the issue from a broader perspective, saying that the equitable distribution of wealth hinges on long-term policies, including policy work in education, social security and the tax system.
He said it was necessary to promote industries distinctive to each locality and increase educational opportunities and quality for disadvantaged students, as well as to protect job opportunities for the disadvantaged.
Statistics released by the Di-rectorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last month show that the average disposable income of households last year was NT$895,000 (US$27,290), up 0.4 percent from 2004.
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