At the Cabinet meeting today, Premier Mao Chi-kuo reminded officials to be proactive and humble when fulfilling their duties.
Challenges and obstacles to the execution of administrative affairs are inevitable, but officials "must look for ways to succeed instead of making excuses for failure or inaction," the premier advised. Moreover, to demonstrate outstanding performance, administrators must be more concerned with what has been achieved than with what has been done, he added.
Mao indicated that as premier he has constantly reminded the administrative team of the necessity of "changing one's mind" in light of the new situation and popular will. It is only through an inner change of values and thinking that one will fundamentally change one's behavior and actions, he remarked.
For instance, because public servants should not have the antiquated notion of being "above" citizens, ministry heads should not refer to leaving their offices to meet people and to understand and resolve their problems as xia xiang (literally "going down to the countryside"), a phrase formerly used by imperial officials departing the palace to inspect rural areas.
Officials must also display a more humble attitude by sincerely "communicating with" various sectors as opposed to "propagating" policies to them, which would imply a one-way relationship. He asked the various ministries to demand their own personnel to be mindful of such issues.
Mao reiterated that the government's administrative focuses are to "help young people build their careers; provide care and support for the elderly; create business opportunities for enterprises; and engender a supportive environment for the disadvantaged to live with dignity."
The administrative team will soon present a series of concrete measures and mobilize forces from across agencies to create a better environment for youths to realize their dreams. However, it is not necessary to design new measures to put each focus into practice, and instead the administration should concentrate on integrating and coordinating various similar policies of different agencies, the premier said. He asked agencies to immediately take inventory based on the administration's focuses.
The Executive Yuan will also swiftly assist cross-agency integration by creating synergy between related policies. In the future, the government will examine and present the fruits of these efforts on the basis of what has been achieved, Mao said.
The premier expects agencies to unleash creativity to incorporate the social resources of the private sector and the strengths of Internet technology when integrating various similar administrative measures. In so doing, bridges will be built between the physical and online worlds. The spirit of cross-generational cooperation is needed to resolve the problems of each age group. This is the core concept of the "technology network and caring cloud" the premier has put forward. He invited agencies to pool their wisdom on this issue in the future.