Cabinet members yesterday met with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators as they sought cooperation in prioritizing the passage of major bills in the new legislative session, which is slated to begin today.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), speaking to KMT party officials and legislators at the KMT headquarters, said that in the new legislative session, the Cabinet would push for the amendment of the National Health Insurance Act (全民健康保險法), an anti-corruption organization law and 18 other laws, as well as a general budget for next year and a special budget for flood control.
“The Cabinet will strengthen cooperation and negotiation with the legislature, hoping that the bills will pass the legislature smoothly,” he said.
KMT Policy Committee Director Lin Yi-shih (林益世) said the legislature was scheduled to start handling the budget plan and bills on Nov. 2 after the question-and-answer session with the Cabinet.
While promising to pass the proposed laws and budget plans, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and some KMT legislators expressed concerns about November’s special municipality elections, calling on party members to join efforts in campaigning for party candidates.
“We should use our advantages as the ruling party and seek victories in the upcoming elections,” he said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his capacity as the KMT chairman, said several government bodies, such as the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, should “stay neutral,” but other government officials should be able to participate in election campaign events during the weekends.
The KMT will hold large-scale campaign events for the party’s Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Tainan mayoral candidate Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) next weekend.
In an interview with Singapore’s Chinese-language Lianhe Zaobao on Tuesday, KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said the KMT must win at least three of the five municipality mayoral elections to be held Nov. 27, otherwise the result will be “a failure.”
King added that if the party suffered such a failure, he would shoulder the responsibility.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS