The Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) has had numerous far-reaching accomplishments over the past eight years, Premier Chang San-cheng stated at today's Cabinet meeting.
Chang noted that the HAC has focused on four major themes over the past eight years: foundation-building, marketing, innovation and sustainability. Its achievements include enacting the Hakka Basic Act to make Hakka-related laws and regulations comprehensive, establishing Hakka parks in the Miaoli and Liudui regions, setting the foundation for the use of the Hakka language in schools, enriching Hakka customs and festivals, and energizing the economies of Hakka communities.
After the HAC's briefing on these accomplishments, the premier enjoined the agency to continue to enhance cross-ministerial resource integration, especially in promoting five major Hakka cultural industry corridors, and to capitalize on limited resources to exhibit Hakka culture's special characteristics.
The HAC stated it shoulders the responsibilities of revitalizing the Hakka language and culture as well as strengthening Hakka people's identification with their heritage. The agency also said its accomplishments over the past eight years have had far-reaching effects; for example, the Hakka Basic Act enacted in 2010 has laid a solid legal foundation for Hakka communities' rights in the public domain with respect to culture, language, broadcasting, historical interpretation, the economy and public administration.
To energize Hakka communities' economies, from 2008 to 2015 the agency assisted 593 Hakka specialty businesses with 905 products. It also integrated the regional economies of Hakka communities and formed five major cultural industry corridors which on average attracted 587,000 more tourists and an additional NT$1.12 billion (US$33.38 million) in spending every year during the period.