President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she hopes to transform the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into a party that can alter the fate of Taiwan, as the nation resumed work after the Lunar New Year holiday.
“Today is the first working day following the Lunar New Year holiday, but many Taiwanese from several industries and emergency workers helping out in post-Tainan earthquake rescue operations were either on duty throughout the holiday or had to work rotating shifts,” Tsai said on Facebook.
Tsai said the DPP was able to win both the presidency and a legislative majority in the Jan. 16 elections because of the public’s earnest aspiration for reform.
As the majority party in the legislature, the DPP must usher in the reforms it has promised, Tsai said, adding that she has instructed the DPP caucus and concerned policy groups within the party to deliberate on the promotion of reform bills and post-earthquake recovery.
“On Wednesday [tomorrow], we will hold a seminar among the party’s new legislators to lay out the processes for the legislation of our policies,” Tsai said.
“I will also visit various industries across the nation and help formulate cooperative strategies between the central and local governments in industrial development,” said Tsai, who is to take office on May 20.
Tsai said from May 20, the DPP should become a party that has learned from spending the past eight years in opposition.
“In this new year, we will have a new identity and the DPP must transform itself into a party that can alter the fate of the nation. This is not only an expectation I have set for myself, but also my pledge to the people of Taiwan,” Tsai said.
DPP spokesperson Wang Ming-sheng (王閔生) said Tsai has instructed groups in the party think-tank, including national territory, town and country, disaster relief and rescue, and water resources, to carry out discussions and analyze the Feb. 6 earthquake.
“Chairperson Tsai has also requested the think-tank submit a report on early warning disaster prevention, response and reconstruction, in an effort to learn from past experiences and improve the nation’s ability to tackle challenges in the future,” Wang said.
“Just as Tsai said on Facebook on Sunday: ‘Taiwan is one big family and we will accompany our injured family members on the path to recovery and help them ride out all difficulties,’” Wang said.
As for Tsai’s planned tour of local industries, Wang said Tsai is scheduled to visit companies operating in information and communication, biomedical technology, precision machinery, green energy, material, national defense and agriculture sectors.
“The visits are aimed at engaging in-depth exchange of opinions with industrial representatives on improving the current industrial environment, regulations and talent cultivation,” Wang said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
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