About 60 percent of Taiwanese would support the government readjusting its budget so that the annual defense spending exceeds 3 percent of the nation’s GDP, a poll conducted by a Ministry of National Defense-affiliated think tank showed.
Taiwan’s national defense budget for next fiscal year is NT$606.8 billion (US$19.37 billion), a record-high, but is only 2.5 percent of GDP, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research said.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute statistics show that Israel’s defense spending in last fiscal year was 4.5 percent of its GDP, while Washington’s was 3.5 percent of the US’ GDP, the institute added.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The institute’s questionnaire asked respondents whether they supported the government cutting other expenditures to ensure that 3 percent of GDP is spent on defense or it raising taxes to support increased defense spending.
More than half of the respondents said that the nation’s defense budget was insufficient, with 9 percent saying it was “severely insufficient” and 46 percent saying it was “insufficient,” the poll showed.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents support the government funneling other expenditures into defense to boost the defense budget to 3 percent of GDP, the poll showed.
However, support for a higher defense budget drops to 41 percent if the government funds it by increasing taxes, the poll showed.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research researcher Lee Kuan-chen (李冠成) said the institute commissioned National Chengchi University’s Pollcracy Lab to conduct an online poll from Nov. 12 to Nov. 13, receiving 1,214 valid copies.
Lee did not mention the poll’s margin of error.
In other news, a ministry report said that the planned relocation of the Armaments Bureau’s 205 Armory would not affect weapons production.
As new armory manufacturing commences, it is expected to exceed previous production quotas by several times, it added.
The armory is expected to meet its yearly production quota for the 5.56mm bullets before the production line is shut down, the ministry said, adding that the ministry is to purchase new equipment to install at the new armory site to continue production of armaments.
Integration and upgrades to existing production lines, which are expected to be completed by December 2025, would double production of essential components to 40,000 pieces annually, it said.
The same process is expected to be carried out for munition annual production of all calibers, and the output of 9mm bullets is expected to increase to 20 million rounds from 3 million, while the output of 7.62mm bullets is to increase to 32 million, from 24 million, and that of 5.56mm bullets is to rise to 40 million from 24 million, the ministry said.
New production lines for personal armament and equipment manufacturing are also to be installed, bringing annual production to 90,720 from 40,500, it said.
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