Taipei Times
Date: Apr 30, 2018
By: Lo Tien-pin and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Tomorrow’s establishment of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research is to be matched by cuts to the Taiwan Strategy Research Center’s budget to avoid overlapping spending and operations, a Ministry of National Defense official said.
The ministry is to downsize the center’s operations and expenses in response to lawmakers’ concern that the two organizations have overlapping responsibilities, the official said on condition of anonymity.
The ministry has allocated the institute, which is to be headed by former minister of national defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) as its president, a budget of NT$125.07 million (US$4.22 million).
However, several lawmakers from across party lines on the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee voted to freeze 10 percent of the institute’s funding during the review of its budget for the current fiscal year amid concerns that its work appears redundant.
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