President William Lai (賴清德) is to join Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators in holding public events around the country to promote the passage of this year’s general budget, a source said on Sunday.
Cho plans to organize events in collaboration with local leaders to open up discussions about how the blocking of the budget by opposition party legislators would affect people’s livelihoods, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Cabinet and ministry officials must get out of their offices and visit municipalities across the country to turn the discussion about abstract budget figures into tangible issues such as how construction projects and social programs directly benefit the public, shifting the pressure to opposition lawmakers who are blocking passage of the budget, they said.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Lai and Cho in the past few days have emphasized close cooperation between the central and local governments, they said.
At a ceremony marking the opening of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 last month, Lai said the government aims for the airport to handle 83 million passengers by 2045, creating an economic impact of NT$2.2 trillion (US$69.81 billion).
At an inspection of a senior care center in Yilan County last week, the president said that if the legislature does not pass the government’s NT$120 billion allocation for the Long-term Care 3.0 plan, it would leave many elderly people without the funding and assistance they need.
“We have seen a number of public surveys indicating that a majority of people are worried about the general budget not being approved, which would lead to the suspension of important programs and projects, and delay the disbursement of funds for social welfare assistance,” the source said.
“Most people are concerned about these issues. The DPP plans to commission surveys and publicize the results, to show that the actions of opposition parties to block the budget run contrary to mainstream public sentiment,” they said.
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