Civilian training and mobilization, energy and infrastructure maintenance, emergency medical and evacuation facilities, communication infrastructure and security, and transportation and financial network security would be the five topics addressed in the first Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee meeting slated for Thursday, sources said yesterday.
The committee is one of three Presidential Office committees established by President William Lai (賴清德) in June, along with the National Climate Change Committee and Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee.
The defense committee is to be led by Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), with Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) and National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) serving as its deputy conveners, while Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) and Minister Without Portfolio Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) would be its executive secretaries.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The committee would assess the nation’s mobilization capabilities and how to better manage national budgets and resources to meet objectives, sources said.
The committee focuses on public-private collaboration and practical experience, they said.
It has invited a diverse group, in age, sex and profession, and representatives from the private sector, government and academia, they said.
The committee would have four advisers and 23 members, of which 68.7 percent are non-government representatives and 31.2 percent are women.
The committee members have five key areas of focus: civilian training and mobilization, energy and infrastructure maintenance, emergency medical and evacuation facilities, communication infrastructure and security, and transportation and financial network security, they said.
Government officials on the committee include Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱), Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季), Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) and Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲).
Representatives for civilian training and mobilization include Yushan Baoguang Temple chairman Wang Pao-tsung (王寶宗), National Defense Education Association chairman Liao Ying-hsi (廖英熙), Presbyterian Church in Taiwan general secretary Chen Hsin-liang (陳信良), Forward Alliance director Enoch Wu (吳怡農), Taiwan Digital Diplomacy Association founder Chiayo Kuo (郭家佑), Kuma Academy cofounder and DoubleThink Labs consultant Tseng Po-yu (曾柏瑜), and Shih Hsin University College of Journalism and Communications associate professor Liu Yu-hsi (劉裕皙).
Representatives for energy and critical infrastructure maintenance include National Chengchi University Department of Public Administration professor Tu Wen-ling (杜文苓) and National Taiwan University Department of Computer Science and Informational Engineering associate professor Hsiao Hsu-chun (蕭旭君).
For emergency medical and evacuation facilities, representatives include Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation executive director Yen Po-wen (顏博文), Taiwan Development Association for Disaster honorary chairperson Avon Hsiao (蕭雅文) and Kuma Academy chairperson Liu Wen (劉文).
Experts on communication and network security include Tina Lin (林雅芳), a managing director at Google Taiwan, Trend Micro manager for Taiwan and Hong Kong Bob Hung (洪偉淦), Taiwan Network Information Center chief executive officer Kenny Huang (黃勝雄), Taiwan Space Agency Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) and Association of Hackers in Taiwan director Dai Chen-yu (戴辰宇).
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS