Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian reiterated Tuesday his desire to normalize cross-Taiwan Strait relations and improve cooperation between the administration and the legislature, and to institute reforms in the Constitution and the legislative system.
Chen said he will push for three "normalizations" -- normalization of cross-strait relations, normalization of the constitutional system and normalization of interactions between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan -- as part of efforts to sharpen Taiwan's competitiveness in the international community.
Chen also said he will see to it that reforms are carried out in four areas of the legislative system, including the halving of the number of legislative seats; adopting a new "single-seat, two-vote" legislative election system; abolishing the National Assembly and incorporating the right to hold nationwide referendums into the ROC Constitution.
The president was addressing a group of representatives from the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development of the Republic of China at the Presidential Office.
The delegates of the council -- one of the most influential groups of corporate founders and executives from Taiwan's private industrial and business sectors -- were led by newly elected council Chairman Kuo Tai-chiang, who is a high-technology manufacturing industry magnate.
Chen told the delegates that the government is now working on the establishment of a cross-strait peace development council to enact legal guidelines for the building and development of peace across the Taiwan Strait, eventually helping to normalize relations between Taiwan and mainland China.
On the notion of the normalization of relations between the administration and the legislature, Chen said that part of the efforts will include a reshaping of the administration by downsizing the existing 36 divisions in the Executive Yuan to a 22-section Cabinet featuring 13 ministries, four councils and five agencies.
On the issue of constitutional reform, Chen noted that the nation's Constitution has been amended six times over the past 10 years, but it is still fraught with compromises and loopholes, such as the existence of the National Assembly, which has long been a vestigial part of government.