The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a bill to transform the National Space Organization (NSPO) into the National Space Center, which is to be a nondepartmental public body overseen by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The National Space Center Establishment Act (國家太空中心設置條例) now awaits President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) signature.
The NSPO’s reorganization into a nondepartmental public body is mandated by the Space Development Act (太空發展法), which took effect in January, the ministry said in a statement.
An independent, dedicated space agency would improve the nation’s space operations and development of space technologies, it said.
The change would add more responsibilities to the agency’s original mission, including cultivating talent in space-related fields and devising policies to boost the competitiveness of the nation’s space industry, the ministry said.
The new roles would be better accomplished by a nondepartmental public body, especially with regard to resource integration, it said.
The space center would be controlled by the ministry, and later by the Council of Science and Technology following the ministry’s planned transformation.
It is to oversee the creation and execution of national space technology programs; the development, transfer and commercialization of space technologies; and facilitate international space cooperation and exchanges, among other tasks, the ministry said.
The center is to be overseen by a board of trustees with 11 to 15 members, three to five supervisors and a chairperson, which are unpaid positions.
A director is to be nominated by the chairman and confirmed by the board.
As nondepartmental public bodies are not governed by the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), lawmakers separately passed resolutions for the space agency to create rules to prevent corruption.
These include procedures for procurement and rules to prevent conflicts of interest to be submitted to the ministry in three months and five months after the promulgation of the establishment act.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
NO RELIGIOUS VISIT: The interior minister said visas were not issued for 218 applicants for a tour of Taiwan organized by a temple due to their own non-response Chinese who had sought to enter Taiwan for a religious event were not granted visas because they were not “religious personnel” and planned to visit places not listed on their group tour’s itinerary, then never supplied supplemental information upon request, the Ministry of the Interior and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Visas were not issued for 218 of the 239 applicants, as they did not provide additional information or explanations as requested, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told a committee at the legislature in Taipei. Multiple groups, including the Taiwan Matsu Fellowship, had signed a petition that sought
A military procurement announcement released on Friday shows the purchase of “air/surface” weapons bound for Taitung, likely for the newly purchased Block 70 F-16V jets still awaiting delivery. The announcement shows a NT$17.22 billion (US$548.91 million) purchase agreement signed on Nov. 13 for “aircraft air/surface weapons,” to be delivered to the air force's Seventh Tactical Flight Wing stationed at the Taitung Air Force Base. The sale is scheduled to take place over nine years, with delivery completed by Nov. 30, 2032. Considering the recipient, analysts believe they are likely air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles for the military’s 66 upgraded Block 70 F-16V jets awaiting
RSS