Chapter 39: New Economic Plan (Part 1)
Lin Feng has been busy until very late and only returned home, every time Zhao Yazi had already prepared dinner. Today Lin Feng saw that she hadn't eaten yet and unhappily said: "Zhi in the future don't wait for me so late to eat, it's not good for your body." Zhao Yazi ignored Lin Feng's complaints, first taking the briefcase from his hand, then clearing the bowls and chopsticks to prepare dinner.
While having dinner, Lin Feng looked at Zhao Yazhi and said: "Zhi, you've been staying home for days, aren't you feeling a bit bored? I'm planning to hand over the Taiwan TV company to you to manage. Whether it can develop into an international giant depends on your abilities."
Zhao Yazhi said with some surprise, "A Feng, can I? I've never done this before?" In fact, Zhao Yazhi was still a bit excited, after all, she was only 20 years old and it was the perfect time to make her move. Finally, under Lin Feng's persistence, Zhao Yazhi joined Taiwan Television Company, eventually developing it into China's largest entertainment company.
After marriage, Lin Feng's work became busier. This year is the last year of Taiwan's five-year economic plan, and from next year on, there will be new plans and goals. Recently, Lin Feng has been working with some economic experts to formulate a new economic plan. The first economic plan was mainly focused on establishing a complete industrial system in Taiwan, focusing on heavy industry and large-scale infrastructure construction.
Now the second economic plan will focus on some educational and high-tech projects. Taking our neighbor Japan as an example, although Lin Feng has no good feelings towards Japanese people, this does not prevent Lin Feng from admiring them in certain aspects. Japan itself is a resource-scarce, agriculturally underdeveloped, and territorially small island nation. Based on its national conditions, the Japanese government shifted its focus to science and technology education, relying on science and technology to promote economic revival, establishing high-tech, high-capital, and high-value-added new enterprises. Through a series of educational endeavors, they cultivated batch after batch of high-quality talent, injecting new vitality into economic development. Amidst the rapid development of science and technology, they introduced advanced foreign technologies, actively expanded international markets, accelerated product updates and replacements, greatly increasing productivity. In the face of increasingly fierce competition in the international market, only science and technology can revitalize a nation, only science and technology can make a country stand tall among the world's nations. Japan fully recognizes this point and is doing just that.
The current situation of education in Taiwan was formed after the government of the Republic of China began to implement nine-year compulsory education in 1968. To this day, six years of elementary school and three years of junior high school are mandatory for all citizens of the Republic of China who have reached the age. About 95% or more of junior high school graduates will choose to continue their studies at a senior high school or vocational school with a three-year curriculum, or enter a five-year college of technology. The selection of high schools, universities, and institutes, etc., still relies on different types of exams.
According to Lin Feng's new education plan, in the next few years, Taiwan will establish a total of 20 national universities, 3 national art universities, 1 national sports university, 1 municipal sports college, 32 private universities, and 3 private management colleges. All 60 of these universities belong to the general university system. In addition, there are 3 national normal universities and 5 national education universities, which belong to the normal university system. The above-mentioned 68 universities require students to take the university entrance examination and be allocated through a unified distribution system in order to be admitted.
Furthermore, there are 10 national universities of science and technology, 28 private universities of science and technology, 7 national vocational colleges, 34 private vocational colleges, 3 national junior colleges, and 12 private junior colleges. The above-mentioned 94 universities belong to the vocational university system, and students must take the four-year technical and two-year vocational unified examination in order to be admitted.
Taiwan also has 7 military academies and 2 police academies, which adopt independent recruitment methods and require students to apply individually and participate in the examinations held by each school in order to be admitted.
In addition, there are 2,611 primary schools and 1,181 secondary schools. In the future, 15% of government budget will be allocated to education. To limit the influence of Japanese and American students, the number of students sent to Japan and the US will gradually decrease starting next year, while increasing the number of students from other countries. At the same time, the government will thoroughly implement free education plans, allowing all Taiwanese people who are eligible for education to receive free educational opportunities provided by the government. Although this will greatly increase the burden on the government, it will also greatly alleviate the pressure on people's lives, so this plan has been strongly welcomed and supported by ordinary Taiwanese people since its introduction.
In the new economic plan, in addition to free education for all, another focus is on universal health care. Labor insurance in Taiwan was implemented as early as 1950, two years after the KMT government retreated to Taiwan. Initially, payment items were cash payments, and medical payments were not included until 1956, and at that time, they were limited to hospitalization treatments at specific medical institutions, so ordinary people had few opportunities to enjoy health care. Lin Feng wants to break through this existing unreasonable distribution system and re-establish a new relatively fair health care system. As the ancient saying goes: "The masses do not suffer from scarcity but from inequality."
On China's road to economic reform, there have been successes and failures. Among the three major policies that are most criticized by later generations: First, implementing family planning; Second, industrializing educational resources; Third, industrializing medical care and old-age care. Since Chinese reformist intellectuals suggested implementing medical industrialization, events of people dying from untreated illnesses due to lack of money have repeatedly occurred in China.
Among them, there are young children from poor families, pregnant women who have no money to go to the hospital and cut open their bellies with a kitchen knife at home, pedestrians who are rejected by hospitals due to sudden accidents without bringing money, and so on. As for Chinese people becoming impoverished due to serious illnesses, it is a common occurrence. According to the World Health Organization's evaluation, China ranks 188th out of 193 countries in the world in terms of fairness and security in medical resource allocation!
In Lin Feng's medical reform, Taiwan will newly establish eighty large public hospitals, including thirty Chinese medicine hospitals. In addition to the few hospitals that are about to be integrated, these will serve as Taiwan's non-profit public hospitals in the future. The government will be responsible for all daily expenses and doctor salaries of these hospitals. The government will set up a public medical fund and establish a vertically-led social public medical management committee to manage the use of the public medical fund.
Every citizen in Taiwan with income has to pay 10% of their salary to the medical fund. Although only those with income have to pay this fee, the scope of public healthcare should not be limited to just them. In other words, those without income should also be included in the scope of public healthcare. Moreover, this regulation has a certain degree of compulsoriness, for example, some wealthy people who participate in private medical insurance and do not plan to enjoy public healthcare services still have to pay this fee. At the same time, in order to avoid the occurrence of hospitals falsifying or randomly issuing prescriptions to cheat the national medical fund fees, supervision and management of public hospitals and pharmaceutical factories are very important.
First, doctors' income needs to be increased. Lin Feng has done a good job in this regard, at least for now Taiwan's top three annual salaries are technicians, teachers, and doctors. Only when doctors have a stable life can they focus on their profession. Secondly, public supervision needs to be strengthened, any citizen who pays insurance premiums has the right to check the use of funds in public hospitals.
At the same time, the punishment for illegal personnel will be increased, and manufacturers and personnel involved in the production and sale of fake drugs will be sentenced to death.
Lin Feng hopes that after the implementation of the new medical insurance, Taiwan will achieve the goal of "small illnesses are not covered by medicine; major illnesses are fully covered". For minor illnesses, the cost of medication is borne by the patient themselves, but the cost of seeing a doctor is still borne by the public. Why? Because many serious and urgent illnesses initially manifest as minor illnesses; in order to prevent people from delaying diagnosis for the sake of saving money, it is best that the cost of seeking medical attention be borne by the national healthcare system.
Not including medication is because for minor illnesses, most people can afford the medication themselves, and secondly to avoid waste of medication. By the way, pregnant women, even if they are not ill, their examination and hospitalization fees should also be included in the scope of comprehensive public medical insurance. Establishing such a universal public medical insurance system plays a very important role in building a harmonious society, developing national cohesion and so on.
Taiwan's new education and medical reforms have touched the hearts of many, as these are matters closely related to every ordinary citizen on the island. As Lin Feng continues to reveal his reform plans to society, he has instantly become Taiwan's most popular political figure.
He was even rated by the island's media as "People's Congressman" and "Reform General". In fact, Lin Feng is also a legendary figure in the eyes of Taiwanese people. Many well-known figures on the island know that Taiwan's achievements are closely related to Lin Feng. Now, his plan has sparked widespread debate on the island. Some experts worry that the government's financial burden is too heavy, which may lead to a fiscal crisis; some experts also support this people-friendly policy, believing it is an important condition for achieving the "Great Unity" of Confucian culture.
Unlike the debate among experts, ordinary Taiwanese people firmly support the implementation of this plan. Many citizens expressed in TV interviews that they are willing to double their premium payments to support the government's implementation of the plan next year. In recent years, Taiwan's per capita income has increased several times, but the overall quality of life has not improved much. One major reason is that ordinary people bear too heavy a burden, with every family shouldering heavy expenses for retirement, education, and medical care, which account for more than 90% of the total household income. If this plan can be implemented smoothly, it will greatly liberate Taiwan's consumption capacity, which is good news for Taiwan, whose industrial production capacity has been increasing day by day.
