More than three-quarters of Taiwanese have no idea what President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in his New Year address, the results of a government agency survey showed yesterday.
The Cabinet’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission yesterday released the results of the survey, which showed that 77.7 percent of respondents were completely unaware of what Ma said in his address focusing on what the government had done over the past year and his policy plans for the future.
According to the survey, 55.3 percent said the government’s implementation of its cross-strait policies last year were a great achievement for the country, while 32.4 percent disagreed and 12.3 percent had no specific opinion.
Opinions was also divided on the government’s performance in advancing Taiwan’s participation in the international community, with 42.6 percent saying the country had made no progress in this regard, 40.4 percent saying it had and 17 percent expressing no opinion.
Asked whether they thought Taiwan’s image in the international community had changed into that of a peacemaker in East Asia committed to relieving tension across the Taiwan Strait, 52.3 percent of respondents said they did, while 33.6 percent disagreed and 14.1 percent did not give their opinion.
On the government’s handling of the global financial crisis, 57.8 percent said plans to guarantee all bank deposits would help stabilize the nation’s financial situation, while 26.7 percent disagreed and 15.5 percent had no view.
More than 70 percent of the respondents supported Ma’s goals of establishing the nation as a global innovation center, attracting talent to the country, streamlining the government, ensuring administrative neutrality and earmarking money to expand public construction to boost the economy.
The survey showed that 90 percent of the public supported Ma’s policy of preserving land and resources to tackle flooding problems and river pollution, while just 4 percent disagreed.
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