The government’s efforts this year will focus on four key areas, the first of which is boosting the nation’s slow economy, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
Speaking at a New Year’s Eve news conference, Tsai said making all-out efforts to bolster the economy will be the government’s most important task, adding that as part of those efforts, the government will speed up the structural transformation of the nation’s economy and expand infrastructure investment.
“In 2016, the work [for the government] was laying the foundation and in 2017 it will be to actively develop. These are the two most critical years for Taiwan,” Tsai said. “We choose to face all the challenges in the early stage of our administration, because we believe that there will be sweetness for the public after sweat.”
Photo: REUTERS/J.R Wu
The Executive Yuan will present a complete plan in March that will act as a guideline for development, Tsai said.
Tsai outlined six areas of infrastructure targeted by the government, including an integrated rail transport system, broadband and ultra-wideband cloud computing, and flood and drought prevention measures.
The other three areas are building facilities to meet the demands of an aging society, infrastructure for basic scientific research and infrastructure to meet the nation’s energy transformation goal of phasing out nuclear power and reducing carbon emissions, she said.
The second item on the government’s agenda will be continuing major reforms, giving priority to reforming the nation’s deficit-ridden pension programs to save them from bankruptcy, she said.
Third, the government will work to maintain peace and stability in volatile international situations and play a more active role in regional affairs, Tsai said.
She also reaffirmed her “steadfast diplomacy” approach in which Taiwan will seek to improve its substantial relations with other nations through cooperation, adding that her commitment to cross-strait relations remain unchanged.
Finally, the government will face divisive issues and will try to find reasonable solutions through dialogue, Tsai said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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