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Updated Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:46 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Gov't to fulfill military policy in '14

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has set the goal of turning the nation's military into an all-volunteer force by the end of 2014. But the conscription system of drafting all able-bodied men will be revived in event of war, according to the plan.

Lt. Gen. Wang Chun-chiang, director of the MND's Department of Manpower, said the ministry has devised a new military recruitment policy under which Taiwan will adopt an all-volunteer military service system during peace time.

But the new policy will still maintain the flexibility of keeping the current reservist system that can be activated in time of military conflict or war, he said.

Wang made the announcement at a meeting of the committees of foreign affairs and national defense under the Legislative Yuan.

He said the MND will reach its goal of having an all-volunteer military force by the end of 2014.

Wang and Vice Defense Minister Chang Liang-jen were invited to attend the meeting to give briefings on how the ministry will implement the new system.

Chang said the ministry "will go all-out to reach the goal of building an all-volunteer military service system."

Asked how the ministry plans to cover the added expense of an all volunteer military, Chang said the annual budget for the proportion of personnel spending will be raised from 39 percent of the total national defense budget in 2009 to 45 percent once the system is fully implemented.

At the same time, the budget for arms procurement will be properly reduced, he said.

Legislator Lin Yu-fang of the ruling Kuomintang reminded the ministry that as it continues to reduce its intake of conscripts year by year, it will be faced with the problem that the number of people awaiting deferred conscription is estimated to reach 92,000 by the end of 2013.

According to the existing regulations, these people are required to perform their national service.

Wang said the MND is planning to put such conscripts to work as alternative service draftees and will also move to amend the relevant regulations to allow more people to fulfill the military obligation in this capacity.

According to the MND report, under the all-volunteer system, conscripts after 2014 will still need to undergo military training for four months before being registered as military reserves, who will be called up in the event of war.

Vice Minister Chang also denied the allegation that the ministry is considering withdrawing troops from the Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu islands facing China just a few miles away in the Taiwan Strait.

He said there is no such issue of pulling out soldiers deployed on three island groups but only the issue of readjusting the military force at various areas.

But the plan on how to readjust the size of the stationed troops has not been finalized yet.

Citing unnamed top military officials, the Liberty Times newspaper reported yesterday the MND is considering reducing the number of soldiers stationed on the three groups of islands by half to less than 10,000.

The move is aimed at making up for a shortage of ground troops defending the main Taiwan island following recent downsizing of the armed forces, according to the report.

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