Ma delivered 58% campaign promises for women: gov't

Three of the 12 policy goals set by Ma while he was campaigning for president in the 2008 election have been carried out, while four are yielding positive results and five others are being implemented, said Chu Ching-peng, minister in charge of the Cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.

The three objectives President Ma's administration has delivered on involve increasing benefits to the country's female population, Chu told a news conference.

These include: relaxing restrictions on mainland Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens to work in Taiwan; initiating soft loans for women to start micro-businesses; and granting subsidies to local governments to build exercise equipment or workout facilities and to improve street lighting, Chu said.

Four of Ma's women's policies have begun to yield positive results, including that a gender equality promotion committee will be set up after an amendment to the Executive Yuan Organization Act is passed to facilitate the implementation of policies boosting women's rights and welfare, Chu said.

In addition, the administration has helped 497,081 women secure employment and provided job opportunities for 17,048 foreign and Chinese spouses of Taiwan's citizens over the past year, Chu added.

The administration has also amended relevant statutes to provide subsidies to companies that allow unpaid paternity or maternity leave, and helped raise women's breast cancer and cervical cancer screening rates, he said.

Also speaking at the news conference, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Wang Ju-hsuan said over 26,000 people, including men, applied for child care leave subsidies between May 1 and Dec. 31, 2009, with the subsidies totaling NT$1.72 billion.

Meanwhile, according to Wu Tai-cheng, minister in charge of the Central Personnel Administration, who also spoke at the press conference, President Ma's commitment to increasing the number of female members in his Cabinet has been delivered.

“After 21 months in office, President Ma has increased the number of female officials of the ministerial level to 20 percent of the entire Cabinet, compared to 12.5 percent in the preceding Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration,” Wu said.

The Research, Development and Evaluation Commission hosted the news conference Tuesday in response to DPP Legislator Huang Sue ying and several women's rights advocacy groups, who accused Ma on Monday, International Women's Day, of having delivered on only three of his 12 campaign promises regarding women, with six failing as “bounced checks.”

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