2018/08/23
The Ministry of National Defense issued a press release to elaborates on the media coverage of “2018 China Military Report” as well as on doubts raised on military investment budgets being crowded out by human resource funding for military recruitmen
The Ministry of National Defense elaborates today (23rd) on doubts raised by the media, which, citing the US’s “2018 China Military Report”, claims military investment budgets have been crowded out by human resource funding for military recruitment. The statements are as follows:
In adherence to the President’s instruction that “national defense budget shall grow proportionally along with GDP and the amount of budget increased annually shall not be less than 2% of the previous year’s national defense budget; in addition, additional 1 % shall be allocated for weapons and armament procurement; major armament procurement projects shall be funded with special budgets”, the national budget is stably growing each year.
The national defense budget for year 2019 approved by the Executive Yuan is NTD$ 346 billion, an increase of NTD$ 18.3 billion from year 2018 (or 5.6% increase). Among the budgets, there has been an increase of NTD$13.9 billion in military investment (or 27.5%) and an increase of NTD$6.4 billion in operations (or 27.3%), while human resource budget is decreased to 45.2% from 47.7% in 2018. As soon as the goal of military recruitment project is completed, the human resource budget will become stable; therefore, there is no such a thing as crowding out military investment or operations budgets as claimed by the media.
On the other hand, regarding reports claiming “the number of officers and soldiers has dropped to 175,000 people”, the Ministry of National Defense wishes to solemnly clarify that there has been no military force reduction plan under way, and the total military force remains at 215,000 people. The Ministry of National Defense will strive to promote recruitment and extended service to meet the human resource demands for regular service forces. Media’s coverage of reducing military force and misappropriation of armaments budget is untrue.
With regard to enhancing the military staff’s quality, the recruited forces are primarily mid- and long-term services, which are given 1 to 4 years of expertise trainings. As soon as they become officers, they will advance in their careers as they extend their services in the military. They can also take part in further training and education programs so they become highly qualified for all levels of positions and tasks, and can boost the overall combat strength of the armed forces. The Ministry of National Defense seeks all citizens’ support and encouragement on the recruitment system.