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One of the top stories from this past week involved Taiping Island, a disputed island in the South China Sea.
Taiping is the biggest of the Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by several different countries. It is currently under the administration of Taiwan.
The head of the Coast Guard Administration, Wang Ginn-wang said Thursday that the military was stepping up security measures on the island.
Wang was responding to some lawmakers’ concerns that if a conflict breaks out in the South China Sea, Taiping Island would be easily occupied by the parties involved in the conflict. Wang said that the military has several measures in place to defend the island. There are marines stationed there, and they have plans to strengthen patrol boat capabilities and bulk up the defense infrastructure on the island.
He said a new port will be completed there by the end of the year.
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Also this past week, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said Wednesday that the government will spend ten billion Taiwan dollars (more than US$330 million) over the next three years to improve long-term care in Taiwan.
Jiang said that Taiwan will become an “aged society” in 2018 when 14% of the total population will be over 65 years of age. Although Taiwan already has many long-term care facilities, there is a growing demand.
Jiang said he hoped that within three years, by late 2016, every one of the 368 towns in Taiwan will have long-term care facilities.
Jiang also promised to increase long-term care subsidies by 10% in order to increase the hourly wage for long-term care workers.
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And finally this past week, the National Development Council says that Taiwan is on the road to a steady economic recovery.
The council on Tuesday issued a green indicator for economic outlook in April, which means steady growth.
Meanwhile, consumer confidence in May was at the 6th highest in history. That’s according to a report by National Central University’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development. The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) was at 85.59 in May. That’s up 1.86 points from April.