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MND SAID TO SEEK BREAKTHROUGH TO ARMS PACKAGE WITH NEW BUDGET PLAN

ROC Central News Agency

2006-05-21 22:28:44

    Taipei, May 21 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has come up with a new proposal to seek a breakthrough to a long-stalled multibillion-dollar arms procurement package, an opposition People First Party (PFP) legislator said Sunday.

    To the best of his understanding, Ku Chung-lien, convener of the military procurement ad hoc committee under the PFP legislative caucus, said the MND is planning to set aside NT$10 billion (US$310.56 million) in its 2007 budget proposal to finance the long-deadlocked procurement package.

    According to the Navy commander-in-cheif-turned lawmaker, the MND has referred the plan to the Executive Yuan for approval.

    If the Executive Yuan agrees to the plan, Ku said the MND would retrieved a controversial special arms procurement draft bill that has been stalled in the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan for two years. The controversial bill, if passed, would allow the MND to procure three big-ticket weapons -- a squadron of 12 anti-missile P-3C aircraft, six Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile batteries and eight diesel-electric submarines -- from the United States with a special budget.

    The opposition-controlled legislature has stonewalled the bill on the ground that financing such a robust package with special budget appropriations would hinder legislative supervision of procurement operations and government budget use.

    Ku said if the Executive Yuan agrees to the MND's plan to appropriate NT$10 billion in its 2007 budget proposal for the three-item arms procurement package, the MND would withdraw the controversial bill. "By so doing, MND officials believe that they would have a better chance to get the legislature's consent to the multibillion- dollar procurement package," Ku said.

    According to Ku, the MND hopes that the country's annual defense budget can be raised to 2.85 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for 2007 from this year's 2.5 percent and further up to 3 percent of GDP in 2008.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/J