A number of major bills and amendments are scheduled to be discussed during the new legislative session that opens on Feb. 26, which will mark the first legislative session after the latest Cabinet reshuffle.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will submit priority bills for this session, including a proposed amendment to the Public Debt Act (公共債務法), a proposed amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenue and Expenditure (財政收支劃分法) and an amendment to the anti-media monopoly bill.
The Executive Yuan will also submit an amendment to the nation’s pension programs in April, over which the KMT and the DPP remain at odds, lawmakers said.
“It will take time to incubate the pension reform plan,” KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) said, adding that reform should progress step-by-step through negotiations.
Premier-designate Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is expected to report on the new Cabinet’s major policy goals and agenda for the coming year during the session.
Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that the new Cabinet needs to put greater effort into helping lawmakers fully understand the amendments to be discussed.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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