Legislative caucuses are formulating their agendas in the hope of upgrading their efficiency in the coming session.
DPP legislative leader Ker Chien-ming (
At the top of the ruling party's policy goals is the NT$50-billion special budget intended to expand public construction works that is left over from the previous session.
Ker said he hopes his opposition colleagues will make good on their pledge to exempt the funding from the legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow.
"So long as the program is not confined to the debt ceiling, the administration has agreed not to insist on seeking the money through extraordinary procedures," he said.
The Cabinet originally wanted the measure paid for with special funds, which would allow it to borrow beyond the constraint of public debt rules. Under existing regulations, the government can borrow up to 15 percent of its annual budget for various spending programs. Currently, the deficit makes up 14.5 percent of this year's budget.
"Hopefully, caucuses will set aside their differences and join forces to revive the economy," Ker said.
The public construction program is one of the two one-year measures the Cabinet introduced last December as part of the effort to roll back unemployment and get the economy going.
Together, they are expected to create some 115,000 job opportunities for unemployed people between 35 and 65 years of age. The other program, which allows the government to hire 75,000 temporary workers to improve the environment and perform other community services, has cleared the legislature.
Newly installed KMT legislative whip Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) said the Cabinet should come up with a more detailed account in an attempt to sell the public construction program to the legislature.
Opposition lawmakers refused to take up the package in the last session on the grounds it is crudely drawn.
Liu said not all public works can help stimulate the economy and that the program should contain large investment projects to avoid waste.
Economics officials have earmarked NT$21.5 billion for road construction and maintenance, NT$9.2 billion for agricultural reconstruction, NT$5.6 billion for education and NT$4.7 billion for urban development. The rest is aimed at improving flood control, rail services, sewage, communication, sports and health systems.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun is due to address the legislature on Feb. 27 and take questions from lawmakers in an effort to win their support.
The TSU, normally a DPP ally, said it will give its top priority to tightening technology protection codes to make it more difficult for high-tech companies to move across the Strait.
TSU lawmakers have vowed to prevent the premier from delivering his address in protest of the Cabinet's decision to allow Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp to build 8-inch wafer foundries in China.
"The government must quit pandering to China, whose leaders have repeatedly ignored Taiwan's goodwill," TSU legislative leader Chien Lin Whei-jun (錢林慧君) said.
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