The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a special budget of NT$229.83 billion (US$8.07 billion) for the third stage of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
The funding for the third phase, which began this year and runs through next year, was approved after NT$169.65 million was deducted from the original budget.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Oct. 6 last year told a legislative session that funding for the third phase would be allocated to infrastructure projects slated to be completed by 2025 to accelerate Taiwan’s digital development, and improve the urban-rural allocation of resources to boost rural infrastructure development.
Photo: CNA
The legislature passed a special budget for the first phase of the program in 2017 and 2018, slashing it by NT$1.8 billion from the original budget of NT$108.9 billion, and approved NT$223 billion for the second phase in 2019 and last year after deducting NT$4.5 billion from NT$227.5 billion.
The government launched the program on July 7, 2017, to build infrastructure for national development over the next 30 years that would facilitate transportation, water supplies, green energy and smart technology, as well as to balance advancements in urban and rural areas.
It also provides incentives to encourage births, improve food safety and nurture talent.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS