Office of the President Republic of China(Taiwan)

While attending the fourth meeting of the Presidential Office Preparatory Committee for National Conference on Judicial Reform on the morning of February 13, President Tsai Ing-wen expressed hope that the Committee can: use language that is readily understood by members of the general public to provide full information and explanations regarding the issues that the committee is focusing on; act as quickly as possible to push forward with reforms that have strong consensus support, and to report to citizens on progress in this regard; and efficiently discuss subcommittee topics and deliver, prior to the committee's final meeting, a "report card" that the people will be satisfied with.

In remarks, President Tsai first thanked all the members and staffers of the Preparatory Committee for the many long hours they have put in since November 2016 to carry out the very difficult preparatory work assigned to them.

The president stated that preparations for the National Conference on Judicial Reform have now been through an initial stage involving the solicitation of views, and it is now time to move on to a second stage of subcommittee work. Before the subcommittees begin to meet, said the president, she wanted to first make three requests of committee members.

First, she called on members to use language that is readily understood by the general public to explain the issues that each subcommittee will be focusing on. During the course of their meetings, moreover, they will need to provide full information so that the people of Taiwan can understand what is being discussed at the National Conference and what sort of progress is being made.

Second, there are many reforms about which a high degree of consensus already exists and which need not be discussed at the National Conference. Government agencies can proceed forthwith to implement these reforms. At the same time, government agencies will need to report to the public on the progress of their work so that the people will know what we are doing.

And third, each subcommittee has a very full agenda, and some of the topics are fraught with great difficulty, so the president urged the members to manage their time well, to efficiently discuss the topics assigned to them so that they can deliver, prior to the committee's final meeting, a "report card" that the people will be satisfied with.