Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Japan’s opposition calls for closer ties with Taiwan, FTA

Taipei Times

A high-ranking politician in Japan’s main opposition party yesterday called for closer Japan-Taiwan relations and bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations.

Speaking at the Commonwealth Economic Forum in Taipei organized by Commonwealth Magazine with the theme of “The Rise of New Asia: Asia’s Conflicts, Growth and the New Future,” Yuriko Koike, chairwoman of the General Council under the Liberal Democratic Party, also said a strong Japan-US relationship would serve Taiwan’s interests.

Fighting for abolition of preferential treatment

Lin Chia 林洽

Monthly pension payments, national health insurance, an 18 percent interest rate: Describing this combination as “the best retirement system in the world” is a misnomer; it is not a retirement system — it is a tool to perpetuate class differences and oppress the public.

Commodity prices in Taiwan are lower than in Europe or North America. In terms of purchasing power, monthly retirement payments and national health insurance make military personnel, civil servants and teachers in Taiwan some of the most privileged groups in the world. The 18 percent interest rate is worth perhaps another NT$30,000 extra every month, which means a retired soldier, civil servant or teacher can earn anything from NT$60,000 to more than NT$100,000 per month. This is not retirement, it is an extortion racket.

Economic policy is flawed: think tank

Taipei Times

Taiwan Brain Trust yesterday said it would not oppose the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) as long as Beijing did not prevent Taiwan from signing free-trade agreements (FTA) with other major trading partners. However, it criticized the government’s economic policy — and its reliance on China — as flawed and misguided.

The trust’s chairman, former vice premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), said China represented about 70 percent of the nation’s total overseas investment, while 42 percent of Taiwan’s exports went to China and Hong Kong, making Taiwan economically vulnerable via-a-vis China.

Reviews for referendums need to be re-examined

Chen Miao-fen 陳妙芬

Proposals for a referendum on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) have been turned down a record four times in a row, prompting widespread demand for the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to be amended. As well as lowering the thresholds for holding referendums in terms of the number of proposers and the number of votes required for a referendum to pass, and defining the effects of referendums more clearly, people are calling for the abolition of the Referendum Review Commission (RRC, 公民投票審議委員會), which is such an obstacle to holding referendums.

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