Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan took a step toward replicating the Greek debt crisis earlier this week when the Legislative Yuan's fiscal affairs committee recently approved revisions to the Public Debt Law that will hike debt ceilings for special municipal and local governments.

According to the draft revisions approved by the committee, the future five special municipalities, including Taipei, Sinbei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, will be able to raise a total of public debt up to 200 percent of their annual expenditures while the remaining city and county governments will have their public debt ceilings lifted from the current 45 percent to 70 percent.

The Executive Yuan's Referendum Review Committee late last night voted down the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) request to hold a referendum on the government's proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China. The vote, which was announced shortly before 11pm, was 12-4.

The TSU's application requested a referendum on the question: “Do you agree that the government should sign an ECFA with China?”