The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday defended Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) social housing proposal in the face of criticism from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, saying that while Tsai’s housing platform might not solve all the nation’s housing problems, it is a brave first step.
“The first step to resolving Taiwan’s housing issues is to provide a stable housing option other than buying property, and then come up with a set of integral strategies to combat structural issues surrounding the purchasing of homes,” DPP Policy Committee deputy executive director Shih Keh-he (施克和) said.
The KMT criticized the DPP presidential candidate’s proposal made on Sunday to create 200,000 social housing units that would only be available for rent to those who are unable to afford to buy their own homes. The KMT caucus called the plan an empty objective that could never be realized.
However, Shih said the key to Tsai’s proposals are determination and vision.
“To solve the housing problem Tsai and her think tank are preparing three sets of policy proposals on housing, housing market management and market sector policies so that the right to housing, a healthy housing market and development of the market could all be taken into consideration,” Shih said.
The KMT’s mistaken focus on the real estate market rather than housing solutions has led to skyrocketing prices that leave the economically disadvantaged and young people suffering, he said.
“It is really unbelievable that, instead of thinking what they have done wrong, the KMT is now criticizing solutions proposed by the opposition and other housing policy experts,” Shih said.
“Many countries, including South Korea, are working to raise the number of housing units,” he said. “In Seoul alone, there has been an addition of 100,000 social housing units within just the past three years.”
The KMT only wants to throw the housing problem back onto the real-estate market, which is actually part of the problem, Shih said.
“Tsai’s policy proposal may not solve all the problems immediately, but it is at least the first brave step toward solving the problems,” he said.
In response to media queries for a comment, KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said the Executive Yuan already has a scheme similar to the one Tsai proposed.
“Such a policy is good in essence, but it requires thorough communication with the public. In addition, we are not in an auction and you cannot just go around and yell ‘200,000’ [housing units] just to outbid others. That is not how policies are drawn up,” Hung said.
The Executive Yuan’s is planning to build 34,000 social housing units within a decade.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS