Two opposition lawmakers said yesterday they will jointly initiate a revision to the existing Ministry of Economic Affairs organizational law to allow for creation of an "economic police bureau" to stem rising economic crime.
New Party Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴世葆) and KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) explained their legislative plan at a joint news conference. Representatives of several private foundations dedicated to intellectual property rights protection were also present at the occasion to throw their support behind the plan.
Hung said as economic crime has become more sophisticated and organized, Taiwan must update its law enforcement mechanism in order to wipe out such criminal activities.
Lai said that the current practice of forming provisional task forces to handle major economic criminal cases has often faced difficulties in logistic support and disputes between command and supervisory units. "As a result, those teams usually couldn't work efficiently to stem increasingly sophisticated economic crimes," he lamented.
Noting that there is a great urgency in creating an economic police bureau, Lai said the Ministry of Economic Affairs basically supports the proposal. Nevertheless, he said, the National Police Administration remains wary about the plan's possible negative impact on its own role and functions.
Speaking on the same occasion, Hank Kwoo, chief executive of the Foundation for the Protection of Films and Video Works, said imported films and videos now face rampant counterfeiting in Taiwan.
According to the foundation's tallies, the domestic CD-ROM counterfeiting rate has surged to 35 percent from about 10 percent in the past. And importers of foreign films have lost an estimated US$35 million due to wide circulation of pirated films. Against this backdrop, Kwou said Taiwan must craft a more effective law enforcement mechanism to eliminate commercial counterfeiting.
Lai and Hung said they are drafting a revision bill to pave the way for creating an "economic police bureau."
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