President Chen Shui-bian (
Saying government streamlining was a global trend, Chen said he hoped the government restructuring plan would succeed.
"For a country with a population of 23 million people, there are 39 government agencies. It is a big job to cut it down to 22," he said. "There were different voices, but we hope there will be progress."
Chen thanked Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The new president and the new government would then have one or two years to prepare before the revised law takes effect, Chen said.
Chen made the remarks during a Lunar New Year gathering at the Presidential Office yesterday morning. He also made three New Year's resolutions.
In addition to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan, Chen said he would like to see a smooth, satisfactory and successful presidential election.
Regardless of who takes the presidency, Chen said it was his duty and responsibility to hand over power on May 20 and he expected full cooperation from all government agencies to accomplish the task.
Chen said that despite the differences between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), he hoped the two referendums would succeed because the 23 million people of Taiwan must send out the message that the nation aspires to become a member of the world body.
The DPP has proposed holding a referendum on joining the UN using the name "Taiwan," while the KMT has suggested a referendum on "rejoining" the organization using the Republic of China, Taiwan or any other "practical" title that would uphold the nation's dignity.
Meanwhile, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday that the Cabinet was set to approve draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan today.
The draft integrated the views of the last legislature and the Cabinet will respect the opinion of the newly elected legislature, Chang said.
Under the draft, the Cabinet would reduce the 36 agencies to 26, with 14 ministries, seven commissions and five independent institutions.
Cabinet Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (
The government is duty bound to do whatever is good for the country and the people, Shieh said, adding that it would make the draft amendments a priority bill for the new legislative session.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching