Providing milk to elementary-school students is still a proposal under deliberation, the Council of Agriculture said.
The remarks were made in response to a media report on Friday that the government intends to initiate such a national program.
The Chinese-language United Evening News reported that the Ministry of Education had made the suggestion last week, with the Executive Yuan asking related government agencies to start planning the policy.
The report said the scheme would operate three days a week, and a rough estimation of the budget would be NT$1.9 billion (US$633.6 million) per year.
The council said government agencies are gathering information from other countries on the provision of free milk in an attempt to encourage schoolchildren to drink milk, improve nutrition and support the domestic dairy industry.
The council said the suggested policy would need to cover where the dairy cows were sourced from, animal feed supply and the willingness of dairy farmers, as well as other aspects concerning the production and sale of dairy products.
A meeting was held on Friday with milk companies and dairy industry groups, the council said, but more discussion is needed.
Council Deputy Minister Wang Cheng-teng (王政騰) said the suggested policy was first mentioned by Minister Without Portfolio Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) a few months ago, when he returned from a visit to Japan and asked whether Taiwan could provide milk to schools at a reasonable price, or free.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
RSS