Premier defends creation of private arms company

The United Evening News also cited an unnamed DPP heavyweight as describing Wu’s appointment as “unbelievable.”

The opposition Kuomintang claimed the company was set up as a political reward for Wu and the DPP’s now disbanded New Tide faction that he led.

The KMT also questioned the timing of the company’s establishment, which comes just weeks before the March 22 presidential election.

But Premier Chang stressed that the arms broker, which will be involved in various government sectors, would be closely monitored by the Legislature.

He denied accusations that his Cabinet would receive a hefty commission for setting up the firm, saying his administration was “not so naive” to seek such monetary gains.

“We should use a broader perspective to look at the case,” Chang stressed.

He maintained that the government has to keep the nation running despite the nearness of the upcoming presidential election.

He said he believes the company will be seen through by the new government and executives appointed by the new president.

Wu has issued a statement denying he was seeking personal gains by heading Taiwan Goal.

He promised to step down from Taiwan Goal after a new government is formed on May 20, the day the new president will be sworn in.

He also maintained that Taiwan Goal, as a private company, will find it much easier to talk with foreign companies who hesitate to deal with governments.

Wu Wei-rong, who heads the Defense Ministry Armaments Bureau, explained that the forming of private firms to handle national arms management, production and marketing is an international trend.

It will be able to integrate the resources of national defense departments and civil industrial sectors, the military official said.

He also said Taiwan has faced many barriers in its previous purchases of foreign weapon systems.

Additionally it has to spend a significant amount of money to maintain the foreign arms it had previously acquired because Taiwan cannot join the foreign production and maintenance line for the armaments due to its sensitive political status in the international community, he said.

“The country’s failure to expand its international sales of locally made weapons has also contributed to a waste of the country’s scientific research energy,” Wu added.

He said that establishing a national defense management, production and trading company would solve all these problems.

With such a company, Wu said the government would be able to integrate reciprocal technology transfers between foreign contractors and local industries and export locally developed technologies or weaponry components to overseas arms producers.

Citing a Singaporean private national defense company, Wu said it had helped Singapore purchase Lafayette frigates from France and further had been able to win a big portion of the contracts to assemble Lafayette hulls and combat systems on Singapore soil.

“If Taiwan had a similar company, it would not only be able to facilitate arms procurement but could also work with foreign companies in technology sharing and development, “ Wu said.

The United Evening News cited an unnamed retired general as revealing that the idea of such a private arms company was already proposed when Defense Minister Lee’s predecessor Lee Jye was still in office.

But the original idea was to form a company to integrate national and civilian resources for the development and maintenance of weapon systems, the general said.

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