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ROC military to be fully volunteer force by 2014

ROC Central News Agency

Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has started planning to push a fully professional voluntary military service system in a bid to build the country's military into "lean and mean" fighting force, Vice Defense Minister Chang Liang-jen said Friday.

The fully volunteer military program will be promoted in a gradual manner, with the number of uniformed men and women recruited through a voluntary enlistment system increasing 10 percent year-on-year from 2010 and eventually reaching a fully volunteer force by 2014, Chang said during a forum held in Taipei.

Speaking at the forum on a volunteer military and the transformation of the armed forces that was sponsored by the Institute of International Relations of National Chengchi University, Chang said the government will take advantage of the eased atmosphere across the Taiwan Strait to restructure the military to make it a modern defense force that can help maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait on a long-term basis.

Defense Minister Chen Chao-min said in August that in order to comply with the objectives set forth in President Ma Ying-jeou's election campaign platform, the MND has been working to launch a voluntary enlistment system in 2010 with the goal of making the military into a fully volunteer force gradually.

Ma, who took office May 20, has promoted the introduction of a fully professional and volunteer military and the continued streamlining of the armed forces, with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of military personnel to 200,000.

After the voluntary enlistment system is in place, the president said in June, "the military will be further streamlined and a smaller but stronger military will be established."

According to an MND budget plan, the number of military personnel will have been reduced to a total of 275,000 by the end of this year, including 250,000 on the regular MND payroll. (By Deborah Kuo) ENDITEM/J