The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) said yesterday that 79 policies, or 19 percent of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 414 campaign promises, have been implemented in the first year of his administration.
RDEC Minister Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said that such a rate of progress was “reasonable,” adding that he was confident that the number of policies accomplished in the third and the fourth year of Ma’s presidency would increase.
To monitor progress on the implementation of his campaign promises, Ma has met with one government agency chief in the presence of the RDEC minister almost every week since late last year to discuss any difficulties holding up progress.
Jiang said that chiefs from 19 of a total of 38 subordinate agencies under the Executive Yuan had talked to Ma between Nov. 5 and March 11, during which Ma repeatedly instructed Cabinet officials to put his campaign promises into effect.
The RDEC classified the 414 policies into four groups based on the level of completion of each policy. The commission said in the first group, 79 promises had been realized, meaning that either the necessary legislation has been put into place or the promises have been put into practice.
Another 240 policies are classified as works in progress, meaning the policies’ related rules and regulations are pending review in the legislature or the policies’ goals have yet to be attained.
Jiang said that the Executive Yuan was still in the stage of mapping out plans to implement another 94 promises.
One other policy on offences involving revising the Criminal Code was now considered unnecessary because it was covered under the recently passed amendment to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), Jiang said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai