Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Monday that government reforms are urgently needed and that the Executive Yuan should send a revised draft of its organization law for screening by the new legislature when it opens Feb. 1.
The Examination Yuan, which is responsible for the testing and employment of civil servants, should also begin to study ways to protect civil servants whose rights may be affected by the downsizing of 35 government departments by one-third in the government reform process, the president said.
Chen said the protection measures should help ease the misgivings of civil servants likely to be affected and remove resistance to reforms, adding that such measures should be completed by the end of the year.
He made the remarks while presiding over the second meeting of a government reform committee.
He also said that cutting the frequency of elections will help save social costs greatly, while the stints of all public functionaries should "conform with reality, which he said will avoid "needless contrition" and live up to the public's expectations.
Chen stressed that some of the reforms involving the revision of laws and of the Constitution will have to be left to the legislative branch, but pointed out that some measures are within the power of the administrative branch and can be taken immediately. He added that this would allow the people to feel "the impact of the government's efficiency" acutely.
Chen said that he hopes the executive branch will start to act on the implementation of the measures within its power immediately and that according to a schedule envisioned by the reform committee, government agencies should complete their reform measures this year.
He stressed that the reforms are "absolutely necessary," saying that while there will be short-term discomfort in the process of adjustment, that is the price that must be paid for the establishment of a "dynamic government with global competitiveness."
He said that the government completed two major tasks late last year--the parliamentary election in Dec. 1 that saw his party become the largest party with 87 seats in the 225-seat legislature and Taiwan's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Noting that the voters expressed their "trust and expectations of the new government and ruling party," he also said that the vote represented a "mechanism for our actions and a mandate for reforms."
On the country's WTO accession after 12 years of struggle, Chen said "it is an unavoidable trend for global trade and economic integration and we must think deeply how to integrate Taiwan into the world system." "For this reason, we need to step up the pace of reforms to upgrade the nation's competitiveness," he concluded.