Despite the Cabinet's goodwill gesture to the farmers' and fishermen's associations by suspending its three-tiered risk-control mechanism for the associations on Sunday, managers of fishermen's and farmers' associations announced yesterday that they would still be holding a protest in Taipei this Saturday.
"It's too late. Why didn't the government say this two months ago?" managers of the associations shouted at a rally held in a co-op office in Tien-mu yesterday.
"Rice has cooked," they said.
Taiwan Agro-Fighters United (TAFU), an organization composed of fishermen and farmers' associations, yesterday rallied some 400 managers of the associations to pledge their resolve to march in Taipei Saturday, following the Cabinet's announcement of indefinitely suspending its three-tier risk-control mechanism for financial reform Sunday night.
"There are so many uncertainties of the Cabinet's indefinite suspension. We have doubts about the policy, and we do not agree with it," TAFU's press release said.
Following yesterday's rally, former president Lee Teng-hui (
With the former president's coordination, TAFU reached a consensus with the Cabinet's secretary-general, Liu Shih-fang (
The Ministry of Finance's plan to overhaul the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations because of their high non-performing loan (NPL) ratios, which stand at an average of 21.5 percent, has been attacked by opposition parties and many of the associations' staff who fear that the associations will be shut down.
At yesterday's rally, the TAFU said that they support financial reform, but the government has failed to respect their opinions during the policy-making process.
Chan Chao-li (詹朝立), one of TAFU's high-ranking organizers, said "The government never gave us a clear response to our questions during three separate negotiations."
The organization listed 10 demands that it will voice during the Saturday march: including allocating a total of NT$250 billion in funds for the development of agriculture and possible damages from imported agricultural products; allowing other farmer associations to take over the associations that go bankrupt; and setting up the national agricultural bank.
They will also ask the government to return the 36 farmers associations that have already merged with commercial banks, and amend the current regulations to allow these associations to be under the sole direction of the Council of Agriculture.
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