The Taipei metro knife attack last week was a reminder of solidarity and vigilance, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, in a call to improve Taiwan’s emergency response capabilities.
He made the remarks in his opening speech for a Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee workshop.
Since its first meeting in September last year, the committee has conducted multiple tabletop and field exercises to strengthen national preparedness, he said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The nation in the past few months has experienced many shocks in the form of natural disasters and a mass stabbing that together resulted in the loss of life and damage to infrastructure, he said.
However, the unyielding Taiwanese spirit shone through the crises, Lai said.
Citing the attack in Taipei on Friday last week, he said that governments and medical care organizations across all levels showed initiative in responding to the crisis.
Developing national resilience requires not only military preparations, but also measures to toughen institutions, infrastructure and the mindset of ordinary Taiwanese, he said.
Officials attending the workshop would be briefed by officials from ministries on the progress made to improve Taiwan’s resilience, as well as the lessons from the handling of extensive flooding in Hualien County in September, Lai said.
Regarding field exercises, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) in her report said that future exercises would be conducted on-site, using real equipment, personnel and scenarios.
This year’s joint exercise included a hostage situation on a train car, which is applicable to last Friday’s attack, she said.
Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said that field exercises, particularly on critical transportation infrastructure, have been ongoing.
The exercises include scenarios such as hostage situations and unidentified gas attacks, she said, adding that scenario planning would be further enhanced to incorporate violent attacks.
During the workshop, Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) reported on the inventory and distribution of essential consumer goods.
With 240,000 hectares of land in cultivation, Taiwan is fully self-sufficient when it comes to rice supply, Chen said.
About 1.21 million tonnes of rice can be produced annually, meaning that reserves are maintained at more than three months of consumption, he said.
Reserves as of the end of last month totaled 1.06 million tonnes, enough supply for 11 months, he added.
Regarding grain reserves for disaster relief, 384 tonnes of grain were stored this year across 18 administrative regions where transportation is easily disrupted, sufficient to supply 960,000 people for a day, Chen said.
To enhance rice supply resilience, the government is to strengthen public grain infrastructure through a special budget of NT$800 million (US$25.4 million) to install low-temperature storage and purchase mobile generators, he added.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) in his report said that construction of the first domestic blood bag factory has been completed, capable of producing 2.3 million blood bags annually.
A blood supply mechanism for large-scale disasters is being planned to expand capacity, he said.
Training is also under way to use underground spaces in hospitals for medical services, he said.
In the future, new hospitals would be required to dedicate 10 percent of their basement space for emergency medical services, he said.
Enough essential medicines and medical supplies for external injuries are stockpiled for 120,000 people, Shih said, adding that the government would work to establish a stable supply chain for these items.
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-jing (林宜敬) said that a defense communications network is being established over land, sea and air to ensure there are no network disruptions in the event of an emergency.
Units are also working to back up data and create system redundancies, and cybersecurity drills are being held to ensure continuous operation of critical information systems and robust system security against hacking, Lin said.
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