The COVID-19 outbreak has quickly spread from Asia to Europe and the US. As Taiwan is geographically close to China, Hong Kong and Macau, the government took measures as soon as the outbreak erupted in China’s Hubei Province in late January to prevent it spreading to Taiwan.
The measures — such as sending Chinese group tourists home early, suspending Chinese group tours to Taiwan, barring Taiwanese group tours to China, centralizing the distribution of masks, postponing school openings at all levels, suspending direct flights to most Chinese cities and closing ferry services between Taiwan and China — have proven necessary to allow the nation’s medical personnel and healthcare system enough time to deal with the outbreak.
Still, the spread of the disease has affected people’s daily lives as well as many domestic industries and commercial sectors, among which the airline, restaurant, retail and tourism businesses have been the hardest hit.
To counter a slowdown in consumer demand due to the outbreak, the Executive Yuan on Feb. 27 passed a NT$60 billion (US$1.99 billion at the current exchange rate) stimulus package, with NT$16.9 billion earmarked for disease prevention and NT$40.4 billion for helping affected businesses and employees.
Several legislative committees last week started to review the budget. There were different opinions regarding who or which industries should receive subsidies and the handling of bailout funds. Lawmakers said some items in the package were unnecessary, while others needed to be better planned. Some items overlapped with existing government measures, while others seemed to be not so urgent, they said, adding that there was a lack of timely and targeted measures to help affected employees and industries.
Lawmakers also need to carefully review when and how the government plans to distribute “stimulus vouchers” to prop up domestic consumption.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has said it would launch the vouchers only after the outbreak has been brought under control. It is clearly worried that disease prevention measures would be thrown into disarray if people started to travel to spend their vouchers while the outbreak raged.
However, how will the government determine whether the epidemic has been curtailed? Are there any measures or criteria that it plans to adopt? Should the value of vouchers be increased from the range of between NT$600 and NT$800 to better stimulate spending?
Although all of the political parties in the legislature are eager to promptly enact the stimulus package, which the government hopes will pass its third and final reading by next week, lawmakers must adjust the package and the budget if they find any of the Cabinet’s plans to be impractical, unnecessary or infeasible.
The main purpose of the package is to help stem financial losses due to the outbreak, rather than using taxpayers’ money to subsidize corporate losses. The bailout aims to provide affected businesses with temporary assistance and help them get back on their feet once the epidemic is contained.
The government’s rapid response to the slowing economy and its resolve to quickly push through the bailout measures would help mitigate economic damage from the outbreak. However, epidemic prevention is paramount, and striking a balance between prevention and reviving the economy depends on the wisdom of policymakers.
The bottom line is that taxpayers’ money should be put to good use and the bailout measures must benefit affected industries and employees. Although the package is urgent, that does not mean it can be reviewed and approved recklessly.
Speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on May 13, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that democracies must remain united and that “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism.” Earlier that day, Tsai had met with a group of Danish parliamentarians led by Danish Parliament Speaker Pia Kjaersgaard, who has visited Taiwan many times, most recently in November last year, when she met with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office. Kjaersgaard had told Lai: “I can assure you that ... you can count on us. You can count on our support
Denmark has consistently defended Greenland in light of US President Donald Trump’s interests and has provided unwavering support to Ukraine during its war with Russia. Denmark can be proud of its clear support for peoples’ democratic right to determine their own future. However, this democratic ideal completely falls apart when it comes to Taiwan — and it raises important questions about Denmark’s commitment to supporting democracies. Taiwan lives under daily military threats from China, which seeks to take over Taiwan, by force if necessary — an annexation that only a very small minority in Taiwan supports. Denmark has given China a
Many local news media over the past week have reported on Internet personality Holger Chen’s (陳之漢) first visit to China between Tuesday last week and yesterday, as remarks he made during a live stream have sparked wide discussions and strong criticism across the Taiwan Strait. Chen, better known as Kuan Chang (館長), is a former gang member turned fitness celebrity and businessman. He is known for his live streams, which are full of foul-mouthed and hypermasculine commentary. He had previously spoken out against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and criticized Taiwanese who “enjoy the freedom in Taiwan, but want China’s money”
A high-school student surnamed Yang (楊) gained admissions to several prestigious medical schools recently. However, when Yang shared his “learning portfolio” on social media, he was caught exaggerating and even falsifying content, and his admissions were revoked. Now he has to take the “advanced subjects test” scheduled for next month. With his outstanding performance in the general scholastic ability test (GSAT), Yang successfully gained admissions to five prestigious medical schools. However, his university dreams have now been frustrated by the “flaws” in his learning portfolio. This is a wake-up call not only for students, but also teachers. Yang did make a big
RSS