DPP urges raising military spending to 3% of GDP
ROC Central News Agency
2014/03/04 14:15:18
Taipei, March 4 (CNA) The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged the government Tuesday to increase its military spending to 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in light of China's growing military strength.
The military should also speed up efforts to promote a plan to build submarines on its own and make a long-term commitment to research and development, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang said when releasing the party's 'blue paper' on defense policy.
He suggested that the military upgrade the status of its information warfare command and recruit more high-caliber personnel in this area.
On airpower, developing advanced long-range unmanned attack vehicles should be a main goal of Taiwan's research and development, he said.
Su made the remarks at a news conference in which the party unveiled the fifth chapter of its blue paper covering 'China's Military Threats against Taiwan in 2025.'
York Chen, convener of the DPP's defense policy advisory committee, said that if Taiwan initiated a plan in 2016 to build eight indigenous submarines within 25 years, the first self-built submarine could be completed by 2022.
Eight submarines would cost NT$400 billion, or NT$16 billion per year on average, he said.
He predicted that the project would require higher investment in the first few years, at NT$23 billion per year.
With military spending accounting for just 2.22 percent of GDP in 2012, an additional NT$23 billion would raise the share to 2.38 percent of GDP, which would remain far behind the 3 percent target, he said.
(By Justin Su and Y.F. Low)
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