Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday promised full support for 65 bills and the central government’s fiscal budget for next year as proposed by the Executive Yuan.
During a visit by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) and Cabinet Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) to the legislature, Wang said all of the Cabinet’s proposals were of equal importance.
However, he urged the Executive Yuan to propose an order of priority for the bills and pledged to help the proposals clear the legislative floor.
“The budget requests we have proposed for this legislative session are in line with our new policies,” Liu said.
CLOSER LOOK
Six of the bills proposed by the Cabinet aim to help economically disadvantaged families, while seven of the proposals address energy and environmental issues, Liu said.
A total of 41 bills are related to improving the nation’s competitiveness and six are related to safeguarding human rights, he said.
Liu also told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世), who was present during the officials’ visit, that he hoped the KMT caucus would unfreeze NT$36.6 billion (US$1.1 billion) in budget requests for the current fiscal year.
CAUCUS PRIORITIES
Lin said the caucus still needed to discuss the priority of the Cabinet’s bills at a meeting today, adding that the caucus might put as many as 50 proposals on its priority list.
The legislature’s fall session begins tomorrow.
It is customary for the legislature to spend most of the session reviewing annual government budget requests as the Budget Law (預算法) stipulates that the central government’s fiscal budget requests must be passed at least one month before the end of the fiscal year.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.