Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday promised to realize marriage equality in accordance with the Council of Grand Justices Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, a goal absent from the 72 priority bills the Executive Yuan put forward last week.
“The Executive Yuan has followed the Council of Grand Justices’ ruling to seek the broadest consensus in an effort to put forward a concrete and workable marriage equality bill,” Lai said in his first administrative report to the legislature.
The drive to legalize same-sex marriage was listed under the government’s goal to build a “just society,” one of its five major administrative goals.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Another measure the government would take to achieve that goal is to amend the Referendum Act (公民投票法) before the current legislative session ends, so that the nation’s transition to a “direct democracy” can be complete, Lai said.
The Executive Yuan has proposed a draft amendment to the act, which is being reviewed by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, he said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has promised to finish amending the act by the end of the year.
The government’s other four major administrative goals are to promote Taiwanese culture, develop “green” energy sources, build “smart” infrastructure and to create a “happy” homeland.
To promote Taiwanese culture, the government would continue to push the “revisiting historic scenes” initiative, which involves incorporating augmented and virtual reality applications with historic sites to enable tourists to better understand the nation’s history and culture, Lai said.
The government has created a platform for financial institutions and audio and video entertainment companies to engage in exchanges and seek potential business partners, thereby leveraging finances for film and music production and helping firms market their products overseas, he added.
On energy transition, the government would carry through a two-year project to boost photovoltaics, a four-year project to develop wind energy, as well as plans to utilize biogas and waste heat, he said.
The government has selected the Shalun Green Energy Science City Office (沙崙綠能科學城) in Tainan as a hub for developing renewable energy, Lai said.
To help the nation transition from an original equipment manufacturer to an innovative industrial sector, the government will relax restrictions on young entrepreneurs when establishing start-ups, invest in digital infrastructure and bolster programs to cultivate high-tech talent, he said.
The government has set out initiatives to collaborate with the high-tech sector in providing people with “smart” services, which would be carried out on the nation’s strong basis of semiconductor manufacturing and integrating trending technologies, such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and big data, he said.
To revitalize the economy, the Executive Yuan has submitted a priority bill to the legislature on recruiting and employing foreign talent in a bid to retain top foreign professionals, Lai said.
The government is creating policies to relax financial restrictions facing foreign investors to boost the nation’s economic competitiveness in the global arena, he said.
To improve people’s quality of life, the government would step up measures to curb the circulation of narcotics and clamp down on overseas fraud rings operated by Taiwanese, which would help defend the nation’s reputation, he said.
The government has set out plans to reduce particulates measuring less than 2.5PM to protect people’s health, Lai said.
Starting on Jan. 1, the government is to step up its ban on plastic bags, which is expected to reduce the number of plastic bags made by 1.5 billion per year, he said.
The government is to introduce policies to address the nation’s low birth rate, thereby lessening the burden on young couples raising children and providing them with “friendly” nursing spaces, he said.
Finally, the nation hopes to engage in collaboration rather than confrontation with China by identifying a common ground, while acknowledging the differences between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS