Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said they support the idea of moving the Legislative Yuan to Taichung.
Tsai was in Taichung yesterday when he told reporters he has raised the idea of relocating the Legislative Yuan to the city many times and it is still with him after becoming deputy legislative speaker.
The relocation of the Legislative Yuan cannot be a matter decided by the legislative speaker and the deputy legislative speaker, but requires a consensus among the caucuses, Tsai said, adding that the new government’s opinion has to be taken into account, as well as government funding for the relocation
“The idea is not to divide Taiwan into regions, but the capital needs to be relieved of its burden,” he said, adding that he also supports national land planning and location planning for government institutions for regional balance.
“We can see the idea of dual capitals being implemented in many countries in the world, such as the US, where the economic center is New York, while the political center is Washington,” Tsai said. “Taipei is crowded and has a lot of traffic congestion. We could probably start a discussion of the idea, with the relocation of the Legislative Yuan being the first move.”
He used the call to allow independent journalists and the general public to sit in on the legislative meetings as an example.
“We support it based on our belief in legislative transparency, but you would find it hard to achieve in practice, as the rooms in the Legislative Yuan are small, to the extent that sometimes even government officials have no place to sit during meetings,” Tsai said. “We would therefore also view the relocation as an issue that involves how the public could participate in the legislative process and independent journalists could supervise their representatives.”
Su, who also went to Taichung yesterday, said it is “not impossible” when asked about the relocation, calling for a public deliberation assessing whether the change would benefit Taiwan in terms of development, regional balance and bridging the urban-rural divide.
The Legislative Yuan pays about NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) in rent per year to the Taipei City Government.
Additional Reporting by CNA
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