The Legislative Yuan today passed a NT$60-billion (US$1.95 billion) special budget to rebuild in the aftermath of Typhoon Danas and extensive flooding last month.
The full amount, raised from the NT$56 billion initially proposed by the Cabinet, passed with no cuts, although three motions to freeze aspects of the budget proposed by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) were passed.
Two items under the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) electricity budget were conditionally frozen at 10 percent, while one item under the National Communications Commission (NCC) was conditionally frozen at 30 percent.
Photo courtesy of Tainan City Government
Typhoon Danas and torrential rain hit southern Taiwan last month, leading the Cabinet to propose the NT$56-billion special budget on Aug. 7.
The amount was then raised to NT$60 billion, which was passed by the Cabinet on Aug. 21 and by a joint review of five legislative committees, including the Finance Committee, on Wednesday.
Cross-party negotiations were completed yesterday, and the third reading was finalized this morning.
The NT$60 billion would be funded via debt issuance, with the majority, about NT$50.1 billion, allocated to economic development.
Meanwhile, NT$4.6 billion was allocated for general administrative costs, NT$3 billion for reserve funds, NT$1.6 billion for community development and environmental protection, and an additional NT$700 million for education, science and culture.
The highest percentage of the budget would be allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture at NT$20.3 billion, followed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs at NT$18.7 billion and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications at NT$6.9 billion.
About NT$4.6 billion would be allocated to the Council of Indigenous Peoples, while the remainder would be split between the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, plus the reserve fund, the NCC and the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS