Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) yesterday defended the council’s decision to set up an agricultural export platform, rejecting criticism from Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who said it would be a misuse of resources.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday approved the council’s proposal to establish the platform, named “Team Taiwan,” to promote agricultural exports.
Han yesterday said the council’s move was “wrong-headed.”
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Han was director of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Kaohsiung chapter from 2017 to last month and general manager of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp from 2013 to 2017.
Han said that the council had spent NT$1 billion (US$32.4 million at the current exchange rate) to establish Mitagri Co, but it is questionable whether the company has expanded export channels.
Government officials should not create useless positions to give their own people salaries, he said.
The council did not spend a penny to establish the company, but only provided it with technical counseling, Department of International Affairs Deputy Director-General Lin Chia-jung (林家榮) said, adding that Mitagri’s shareholders are all private firms.
Chen said in a live-streamed video on the council’s Facebook page that Team Taiwan differs from Mitagri, as it aims to bring farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, exporters, and local and central governments together to facilitate marketing, logistics, cooling and quarantine techniques for 30 agricultural products.
Chen said that he is willing to visit local municipalities to explain the policy if Han or other government officials have questions about the platform.
The nation’s agricultural export revenue last year reached a 20-year high of US$5.47 billion, while the council expects to bring it to US$6 billion this year, he said.
While the Chinese market is not yet replaceable by any other single market, the council aims to scatter investment risk by exploring less-charted markets, such as the Middle East, Russia and nations covered by the New Southbound Policy, the department said.
Asked to comment on Han’s criticism, Mitagri chairman Chen Yu-jan (陳郁然) said in a text message to the Taipei Times that he would not make a statement, while asking why it was Han’s place to assess the company’s contributions.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
RSS