Starting December 2012, the Executive Yuan will hold entirely paperless meetings as part of its policy to save energy and cut carbon, said Premier Sean Chen today. In addition, all government agencies and schools are actively promoting a "four-reduction program" to lower consumption of electricity, petroleum, water and paper.
The Executive Yuan began promoting paperless meetings and conferences in May this year. As of October, 82.42 percent of the meetings held that month did not entail the use of paper. The Executive Yuan's Department of Information Management recently invited staff from central and local government agencies to receive training on a new electronic conference system, so that they can go back and help their chiefs understand how to use this system as well.
Starting next month, all conference information will be emailed to the heads of government agencies the day before the meeting. Attendees can either bring their own electronic devices or use those provided by the Executive Yuan. The new system allows users to flip pages, underline words and mark places. It is already linked to law references such as the Laws and Regulations Database of the Republic of China, and other useful information will be added in the future.