With the one-year anniversary of her presidency around the corner, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is gearing up to meet with representatives from various government agencies to evaluate the progress of her reform plans and major policies.
According to a high-level Presidential Office official speaking on condition of anonymity, Tsai has been closely watching the execution of her policies and plans to make the results public before May 20 to raise awareness of the government’s efforts.
She is giving particular attention to the “new southbound policy” and an economy-boosting program to develop the “five plus two” industries, which includes an “Asian Silicon Valley,” “intelligent” machinery, “green” energy technology, biomedicine and national defense, plus the establishment of a new agricultural paradigm and a circular economy, the official said.
The government’s ongoing campaign against drugs is another major focus of Tsai’s, the official said, adding that both the president and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) have heard reports about progress on the issue and have instructed government agencies to make changes.
As for the administration’s reform plans, pension reform is in the “wrapping-up phase” as the proposals for public servants, public-school teachers and private-sector workers are to be deliberated in the legislature.
The official said the government’s bottom line is to see relevant draft amendments clear the legislative floor during the current legislative session.
In the meantime, Lin has been briefed on the latest developments in the government’s plans to build more social housing, promote urban renewal projects and establish a more comprehensive long-term care program, with results to be publicized soon by the Executive Yuan, the official said.
The official said that the Ministry of the Interior has projected that a total of 88,000 social housing units could be provided by 2020, which is 8,000 units more than the initial plan.
A plenary Cabinet meeting has been organized for Thursday to discuss two elements of the “five plus two” industries program: the development of an Asian Silicon Valley and “green” energy technology.
During the meeting, the National Development Council is to deliver a more concrete plan for the Asian Silicon Valley project that is expected to focus on six aspects, the official said.
The first aspect is mobile and digital life, which seeks to facilitate mobile wallet technology for most areas of daily life through intergovernmental integration efforts, while the second focuses on applications of artificial intelligence, aimed at developing robot-based voice service and financial management.
Other aspects include Internet information security, self-driving vehicles, applications of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, and information sharing with Asian nations.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS