Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday urged legislators to swiftly approve an additional NT$210 billion (US$7.17 billion) to maintain government subsidy programs keeping companies afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is the second increase of special funding for the Special Act on COVID-19 Prevention, Relief and Recovery (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例), with the first, valued at NT$150 billion, approved on May 9.
Answering legislators’ questions at the Legislative Yuan, Su said that NT$38.3 billion would go toward pandemic prevention, specifically the purchase and research and development (R&D) of vaccines targeting the SARS-CoV-2 strain.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
It would also cover compensation for pandemic prevention efforts, purchasing drugs and other goods used for prevention, stepping up border patrols, maintaining quarantine facilities and compensating local governments, he said.
The remaining NT$171 billion would be used to maintain the Triple Stimulus Voucher program, promote loans and financing measures for small and medium-sized businesses, fund commercial-use electricity subsidies, extend subsidies for employees at companies or in industries heavily affected by the pandemic, fund subsidies to keep businesses afloat and continue R&D programs, Su said.
More than 13.3 million Taiwanese have benefited from the act’s original NT$60 billion in funding and the first special budget increase, Su said, adding that 110,000 companies have been kept afloat and 900,000 employees retained.
To date, 22.65 million people have picked up vouchers, demonstrating the program’s success, he added.
The government has allocated NT$161.1 billion from the NT$210 billion in funding already approved by the legislature, but has only spent NT$151.9 billion, or 94 percent, of the budgeted funding, Su said, adding that the government has only spent the funding where needed.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs would take the lion’s share, NT$137.54 billion, of the newly requested funds, followed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, with NT$37.36 billion.
The Council of Agriculture is requesting NT$19.11 billion, while the Ministry of Labor is asking for NT$4.79 billion, Chu said.
The National Communications Commission is asking for NT$271.4 million, while the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education are requesting NT$638.55 million and NT$640 million respectively, he said.
Separating funding by category, NT$166.4 billion would be used for economic development and NT$43.58 billion for social welfare, Chu said, adding that the additional funding would be provided by raising debt.
In related news, Taiwan can obtain vaccines through self-development, international purchases or international collaboration, Su said, adding that regardless of the method, Taiwan would prioritize domestic needs.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said the government on Friday last week signed a contract with the Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) platform, and would pay a deposit for vaccines next month. He did not specify the amount of the deposit.
COVAX is a global initiative led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun and CNA
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS