Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday apologized and promised improvements after chaotic scenes outside local government offices on Wednesday as uninsured workers waited in long lines to apply for NT$10,000 grants, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) blasted the Cabinet for not caring about ordinary people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The district offices’ lack of efficiency in handling the grant applications has come under fire, as well as the confusing eligibility rules.
Nationwide, district office employees on Wednesday only approved 12 of the 10,313 applicants, Yang Chin-ching (楊錦青), director-general of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Social Assistance and Social Work told reporters at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Su later told a news conference that the chaos occurred after he did not make his instructions clear enough when he announced the grants on Monday, which led to competition among applicants.
“The government is a cohesive entity. As the leader of the team, I must assume full responsibility for the issue and reflect on my actions,” he said.
The policy was also not properly relayed to front-line civil servants, whose workload spiked due to the applications, he said, expressing his apologies and gratitude to them.
Photo: CNA
The application period is open until June 30, so there is no need to scramble to apply, he said.
Some people blamed the ministry for the debacle, but he hoped that the public would not be too harsh on the ministry, as Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) had diligently led the nation in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and had only a limited staff to promote the bailout policy, Su said.
The grant money is not issued on the spot, he said, adding that applicants with all of the necessary identification documents would receive the payment in three to five days after being approved, while those with only their national identification card would be asked to sign an affidavit declaring that they met all of the requirements.
The affidavit says that if a review of their eligibility finds that they are not qualified, they would need to return the money and face legal penalties, although Su added that the government would be lenient, as application issues might have resulted from a miscalculation or a misunderstanding of the policy.
Asked about the media saying that his daughter, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), grilling Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) at the Legislative Yuan yesterday was a “princess coming to the king’s rescue,” Su Tseng-chang said that a recording of the question-and-answer session did not show that she “grilled” her, but was simply avidly discussing issues.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) blasted the DPP administration for showing no empathy to people affected by the pandemic and presenting an ineffective disease relief policy.
The KMT had recommended that the government hand out cash to everyone except for rich people, he wrote on Facebook, but instead, the DPP insisted on setting up complicated relief procedures.
Many local officials have complained that the central government has not cooperated with them, which resulted in Wednesday’s chaos, he wrote, calling on the administration to improve communication with local governments.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS