A special budget for the government’s stimulus package and an amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) will be high on the agenda when the legislature’s new session starts tomorrow.
Last year the government proposed an economic stimulus package budget of NT$150.6 billion to be used this year to expand public infrastructure projects, but the budget was cut by NT$4 million during its first reading.
A consensus was reached by the ruling and opposition parties that the budget should be passed by April 10, but with many spending items in the budget request still requiring further discussion, legislators are pressed for time to pass a third reading of the budget by the deadline.
The amendment to the Local Government Act is aimed at better utilizing state-owned land and resources, while balancing regional and urban rural development by adjusting the administrative organizations nationwide.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has previously said that he hoped the amendment would be passed by the middle of next month to pave the way for the integration of Taichung City and Taichung County, upgrading their status to a special municipality.
Although the Democratic Progressive Party is not opposed to the proposed amendment, what concerns it is that the merger of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County should be implemented at the same time and by the same standards that are applied to Taichung, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said.
Wang said he would therefore convene a negotiation process to settle issues or disputes between the two camps in the hope that the law revision can smoothly clear the legislative floor.
As to the effective dates of the proposed restructuring, the Executive Yuan has suggested that they should be done to coincide with the end of the terms of local government elected officials. If that is the case, the terms of the Taichung City mayor, the Taichung County commissioner, as well as village and township chiefs, could be extended to Dec. 24, 2010.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
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