The Ministry of National Defense’s estimated budget for fiscal 2022 tops those of other government agencies and is expected to grow by at least NT$10 billion (US$357.1 million), or 2.7 percent, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said yesterday.
The defense ministry is hoping to increase its budget for fiscal 2022 in light of increasing military harassment and threats from China, a source said on condition of anonymity.
Defense spending could surpass this year’s NT$361.7 billion, the source added.
The increase in defense spending for fiscal 2022 would not be lower than the average GDP growth over the past three years, Chu said.
The main cause for the increase would be rising personnel wages due to promotion of officers, he said.
The ministry’s fiscal 2022 budget would have been even higher if the already approved special budget allocated to it for the purchase of 66 F-16V jets were included, he added.
Chu declined to specify whether defense spending would grow by 2 percent or 3 percent next year.
Matters of national defense fall under the jurisdiction of the president, and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will have the final say on the defense budget, he said.
Government spending for fiscal 2022, especially for social welfare — which stands at NT$558.8 billion this year — is expected to surpass that of fiscal 2021, he added.
The government is not planning to increase stock transaction taxes for fiscal 2022, as the TAIEX has continued to reach new heights this year, he said.
The DGBAS is expected to present separate reports to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Tsai on the planned government budget.
Government agencies are to begin reviewing their budget plans this month and deliver them to the Executive Yuan by late next month for approval, the DGBAS said.
Once the government budget is approved by the Executive Yuan, it would be forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for approval, it said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying