The Executive Yuan has established a project office to aid the drafting of blueprints for reform of the country's pension systems, Vice Premier and concurrently Pension System Reform Task Force convener Jiang Yi-huah said today.
Jiang said the office, which began work this past Monday (November 26), consists of pension fund specialists from five relevant agencies. More than 100 forums will be held over the next month to gather views at the ground level and from every sector of society before the pension reform task force proposes its preliminary reform plan next January, the vice premier said.
"The government is very concerned about pension reform, which is key to Taiwan's development," the vice premier noted. "The office will uphold the spirit of deliberative democracy and hopes that forum attendees will put ideology and partisanship aside and propose sustainable pension reform plans that are in the best interest of the general public."
The new project office is located next to the vice premier's office so he can exchange opinions with the team members at any time. The five agencies whose staff members were appointed to the office are the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Ministry of National Defense (MND), Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), Ministry of Education (MOE) and Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA). The task force will conduct both local and ministerial forums and also visit the Legislature to solicit the opinions of the ruling and opposition party caucuses and the independent representatives.
Jiang has instructed four ministries to organize local symposia at the local level through their professional channels; he estimates that with this outreach, over 100 will be held. By working together with regional and national labor unions, the CLA has already organized 11 forums with more than 100 to 200 labor representatives participating at each. The CLA expects to host a total of 20 symposia to collect opinions from a wide range of workers.
The DGPA will order its administrative units in each of the nation's 22 counties and cities to host forums, inviting scholars, experts, civil servants and pensioners' representatives to participate.
The MOE will host a plenary session next week for its 22 county and city bureaus of education. Together, they will formulate discussion topics for each county and city to present at its own subsequent forum for its active and retired educational personnel.
The MND will organize symposia nationwide through its active military and reservist networks. County and city councilors and legislators will be invited to attend these events.
The central government branches of these agencies will concurrently hold forums to gather the opinions of academics, experts and nationwide representative groups such as the National Teachers' Association and the Chinese Federation of Labor. They will also cooperate with academic institutions and private think tanks to hold expert discussions and form consensus among various sectors of society.
Vice Premier Jiang indicated that this is a bottom-up communication approach, and the project office's responsibility is to collect all the opinions canvassed from the symposia and calculate their pros and cons.
"Pension reform cannot be conducted behind closed doors," he stressed. "We must understand the opinions and expectations of people from different walks of life. Our team is open to all suggestions and does not uphold a preconceived position." He also urged people in different pension systems to learn more about related schemes to avoid misunderstandings.
The Executive Yuan will also cooperate closely with the Examination Yuan, which is in charge of the pension systems for government employees and public school teachers, Jiang noted. He said he had reached a consensus with Examination Yuan Vice President Wu Jin-lin last week on the following pension reform-related issues:
1. The Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan will jointly establish a mechanism for mutual cooperation. Each will invite the other's representatives to attend key meetings concerning pension system reforms for the two groups.
2. The vice premier and vice president of the Examination Yuan will co-chair pension reform symposia after the opinions collected at the local forums have been sorted.