The Government Reform Commit-tee finalized its plans for the restructuring the Cabinet yesterday. According to the final proposal, the Cabinet's current 36 administrative entities will be cut down to 23.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) demanded the proposal officially take effect no later than May 20, 2004, the date on which his term expires.
According to the proposal, the Cabinet will have four new ministries, including a Ministry of Maritime Affairs, a Ministry of Cultural and Sports Affairs and a Ministry of Veterans Affairs.
Four ministries will be upgraded from administrative bodies. These are the Ministry of Labor and Human Resources (from the Council of Labor Affairs), the Ministry of Environmental Resources (from the Environmental Protection Administration), the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (from the Department of Health) and the Ministry of Agricultural Affairs (from the Council of Agricultural Affairs).
"I hope the Executive Yuan will complete a concrete bill in accordance with the proposal and submit it to the legislature for review by the end of April," Chen said.
"I also hope the Legislative Yuan will pass the bill expeditiously so that the bill can immediately take effect when the next president inaugurates and nominates the new premier.
"When that happens, the new executive and new legislative institutions will create a whole new environment in which we can lay down a solid foundation for our country," Chen said.
After three hours of discussion, the conference confirmed the draft proposal adopted by the committee's staff meeting on Monday.
Central to the proposal is the idea that the entities within the Cabinet will be divided into four major segments with 18 entities for general affairs, two executive management entities, three policy-integration entities and a few independent entities, to be discussed by the Cabinet subject to need.
In addition, the Cabinet-level National Palace Museum will be elevated and report directly to the Presidential Office.
Some committee members opposed the establishment of the maritime ministry, worrying that its jurisdiction would overlap with other Cabinet departments.
"The idea of setting up the maritime ministry stemmed from the fact that Taiwan is an island nation, but it has always ignored the integration, use and protection of its maritime resources because of its over-emphasis on political and military issues," said DPP lawmaker Sheng Fu-hsiung (沈富雄).
"But the name and jurisdiction is so encompassing and vague that it could easily transgress the jurisdiction of the ministries of national defense and the interior," Sheng said.
The president said some issues still need to be resolved.
"In view of the fact that independent institutions will have a profound impact on the organization of the government, the timing of their establishment requires more deliberation on the Cabinet's part," Chen said.
The Government Reform Committee is comprised of 25 representatives from the Cabinet, business and academia and is chaired by the president.
It has held three full-member conferences and seven staff meetings during past two months to discuss the direction of the government's reorganization.
Secretary-General to the President Chen Shih-meng (
He said that instead, the president welcomes the Cabinet and the Legislative Yuan to participate in the discussion.
"However, the president also hoped that the executive officials would not stay in the way of reform. That is, they cannot resist the reforms simply because their own institutions might be adjusted," Chen Shih-meng said.
Chen Shih-meng also stressed that the reorganization of the government will not be detrimental to the welfare and benefits of public employees because the Examination Yuan has been working on a bill meant to guarantee public employees' benefits following the government's reorganization.
A point of dispute at yesterday's conference was how many independent institutions should be created.
The meeting on Monday recommended that six institutions be established, but the committee members and public opinion have remained divided on the issue.
The Cabinet has said it will further discuss the question.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS