e promised to work closely together to give birth to Taiwan's biomedical industry. Premier Chang Chun-hsiung set a precedent yesterday by announcing his wholehearted support for a bill sponsored by Wang Jin-pyng, president of the Legislative Yuan, to develop a new industry to add an estimated NT$1 trillion to Taiwan's gross domestic product a year.
Never in Taiwan's brief democratic history did the administration give up the initiative to propose draft laws, but Chang pledged the cabinet would sit on the sidelines and just provide "bylaws" that will help enforce the Wang bill.
Chang told a regular cabinet meeting in the morning every effort should be exerted to help develop the contemplated industry.
"We'll offer tax incentives to investors, shorten the time needed to approve new medicines, relax restrictions on experiments and attract talent," the premier vowed.
The bill, endorsed by all the political parties represented in the Legislative Yuan, was a brainchild of Lee Yuan-tseh, Nobel laureate and former president of the Academia, and his successor Weng Chi-hui.
Legislative caucus whips of all parties -- the Democratic Progressive Party, Kuomintang, People First Party, Taiwan Solidarity Union and Nonpartisan Solidarity Alliance -- met later in the morning to sign an agreement to adopt the bill.
It is all but certain that the bill, the one blessed by all, will be placed on the agenda for a plenary session of the legislature tomorrow.
The chances are that the bill be acted on starting next Monday. If things go as expected, the bill will become an act on June 15, the day the nation's highest legislative organ adjourns for the summer.
"I hope," Chang said, "the draft statute will be passed before the legislature adjourns." He has no doubt the unanimously agreed national effort will be crowned with success.
Wang, who has close connections with pharmaceutical industry leaders, lent his name to the bill, titled the statute for the development of the biomedical industry.
Worldwide sales of the biomedical industry top US$800 billion a year. Taiwan's share is a mere 0.5 percent.
Lee and Weng wanted to make the biomedical industry an engine for Taiwan's economic development.
K.T. Li, a former economic affairs minister, has made the IT (information technology) industry Taiwan's prime mover for economic development in the 1980s.
As it has peaked, it has to be replaced by a new industry that will continue to upgrade the Taiwan economy.
Apparently, the premier gave the Wang bill a blessing, hoping the opposition will be less hostile.
The opposition -- Wang is a former vice chairman of the Kuomintang and has just refused to be Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's running mate -- is threatening to topple the Chang cabinet, inaugurated on May 21.
Chang was declared a persona non grata in the Legislative Yuan in 2000 after he as premier suspended work on Taiwan's fourth nuclear power plant.
He has to mend fence with the Kuomintang and the People First Party in particular.
The olive branch Chang offered Wang Jin-pyng may pay a dividend.
With the bill adopted, Wang's prestige will be boosted to the extent that the ruling party wishes will eclipse that of Ma Ying-jeou, who may be disqualified as candidate for president, if convicted of corruption and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
Ma is standing trial for misusing his expense account while he was mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006. The Taipei district court is expected to hand down a verdict before November.
Should Ma be forbidden to run, Wang might be able to bear the Kuomintang standard in March next year.
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