Transparency International (TI) will commission a new poll on corruption in Taiwan, an official said yesterday, after the group’s original findings sparked widespread skepticism in the nation.
Transparency International Chinese Taipei (TICT) executive director Kevin Yeh (葉一璋) said the Berlin-based group has agreed to conduct a new poll, although how this will be funded has yet to be determined.
Yeh said TICT is expected to foot most of the bill, but it is discussing the issue with its parent organization in the hope that it will provide some of the funds.
Yeh did not give an estimate of how much a new poll would cost.
TICT is planning to hire an impartial and experienced polling firm to handle the project after discussing issues such as survey methodology and questionnaire structuring with TI, Yeh said.
The non-governmental organization came under fire after its 2013 Global Corruption Barometer report said that 36 percent of people in Taiwan who had used one of eight government services in the past year had paid a bribe.
The report sparked skepticism as the percentage was far higher than the 7 percent and 2 percent figures reported in TI’s 2010 and 2006 reports respectively, the only other times Taiwan was in the survey.
Skepticism was heightened when media found that the firm listed as having conducted the Taiwan survey — Shanghai-based WisdomAsia — denied having done the job.
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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