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.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
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