A government Web site that aims to encourage the public to contribute ideas on how to boost the nation’s economy has drawn praise and criticism alike from the public and lawmakers.
The Central Personnel Administration (CPA) launched the Web site to solicit creative economic policy proposals on Sept. 12.
The Web site had attracted at least 100 proposals as of Wednesday and many of them were so “creative” that the CPA decided to remove them, a report in the Apple Daily said yesterday.
FLOATING SALARIES
Ideas posted on the Web site reportedly suggested that Cabinet ministers should work as volunteers or that there should be a floating salary pricing system for ministers, much like the nation’s floating oil pricing system. Some others called for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to share its party assets with the public as a way to boost the nation’s economy.
As of yesterday, none of the messages on the CPA Web site could be viewed.
CPA Minister Cheng Ching-hsiu (陳清秀) explained yesterday that the site had originally been intended to target civil servants and that the CPA’s opening of the site to the public was in line with a pledge made by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to “listen to the voices of the people.”
Chen stressed that the government was looking at numerous ways of boosting the economy, saying “the more ideas, the better.”
PLAYING GAMES
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) accused the CPA of acting as if it were playing games.
The launch of the Web site, he said, showed that Ma and Liu had run out of ideas on how to revive the economy.
KMT Legislator Nancy Chao (趙麗雲) also frowned upon the Web site, saying that “the Cabinet should propose its own economic policies rather than rely on creative ideas from the public.”
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), however, argued that many large companies also use the Internet to seek ideas when formulating business strategies.
Describing the Internet as “far-reaching,” Ting said the Web site could attract a lot of ideas and allow the public to brainstorm together.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG AND STAFF WRITER
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