The legislature will discuss on Friday two controversial job-creation projects proposed by the Cabinet following tough cross-party negotiations, although PFP lawmakers rejected sending the projects directly to the second reading.
Opposition lawmakers also criticized the Cabinet for setting up hot lines for unemployed people to register for jobs they said would be created by the two projects.
The move, they said, was a ploy by the ruling party to harness public opinion in favor of the projects, thereby pressuring opposition lawmakers to vote for them.
Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jyn-ping (
"We have agreed to put the two projects on Friday's agenda for discussion," Wang said after the meeting.
However, he said that PFP lawmakers rejected a proposal, supported by all the other parties, to pass the measures directly to the second reading.
"We will continue to communicate and negotiate before Friday," Wang said.
Wang was also critical of the Executive Yuan for setting up the hot lines before the projects had been approved by the legislature.
"We will help solve problems regarding unemployment, but the Executive Yuan should respect the legislative process," he said.
Echoing Wang's view, Kuo Su-chun (
"It feels like the DPP is doing this to attract voters to the party in the 2004 presidential election," Kuo said.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the hot lines, opened on Saturday, were related to a NT$4 billion Council of Labor Affairs project to create 20,000 jobs, and had nothing to do with the two projects awaiting consideration in the legislature.
"It is a misunderstanding. The fund is a regular annual project implemented to stabilize the employment situation. But we need the two new projects to provide more job opportunities," Yu said.
Yu also said that the move had nothing to do with the 2004 presidential election.
"We only offer these jobs for one year, which will not last until 2004. So how can it be a tool to attract voters?" he said.
Yu said he had talked with Wang on the phone to clarify the misunderstandings.
Yu is scheduled to report to the Legislative Yuan on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7 on details of the two projects to persuade lawmakers of the necessity of the plan.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS