Focus Taiwan
Date: 03/31/2020
By: Chen Chun-hua, Ku Chuan and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) The Taiwan government's response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic could reach as much as NT$1 trillion (US$33 billion), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a legislative hearing on Tuesday.

Such a figure would more adequately reflect the global nature of the crisis than the NT$60 billion special budget the Executive Yuan proposed in February, when the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak was mainly limited to China, Su said.

In an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan, opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) asked Su to detail the timing and scale of response measures being planned by the government, inquiring whether it would seek anything on the scale of Singapore's recently announced S$48 billion (US$33.65 billion) stimulus plan.

"The overall scale will likely be around NT$1 trillion," Su said, arguing that the size of various countries' response measures will vary based on a variety of factors.    [FULL  STORY]