The amendment of Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (hereinafter, the Act), which was passed by the Legislative Yuan on December 21^st of 2018 and announced on January 16^th of 2019, will largely change the landscape of management and administration of certain chemical substances. To reflect one of the crucial sections of the new amendment, the name of the Act also has been changed to “Toxic and Vigilant Chemical Substances Control Act” (official translation hasn’t been yet published). The Act, which were introduced in 1986, is expected to play a bigger role in food safety administration after the entire amended provisions enter into effect. Some critical information related to the new amendment is introduced as following:

1. Inclusion of SAICM framework

   The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is a policy framework under the United Nations to promote chemical safety. The essence of SAICM is included into the new amendment.

2. Addition of vigilant chemical substances and modification of definition of class 4 toxic chemical substances

   There were 4 classes of toxic chemical substances being regulated by the previous version of the Act:

   (1) Class 1 toxic chemical substances: those are not prone to decompose in the environment or to pollute the environment or endanger human health due to bio-accumulation, bio-concentration or bio-transformation.

   (2) Class 2 toxic chemical substances: those cause tumors, infertility, teratogenesis, genetic mutations or other chronic diseases.

   (3) Class 3 toxic chemical substances: those endanger human health or the lives of biological organisms immediately upon exposure.

   (4) Class 4 toxic chemical substances: those for which there is concern about pollution of the environment or the endangerment of human health.

   In the amendment, whilst the class 1 to 3 remains unchanged, endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC), however, is added to the criterion of class 4 toxic chemical substances definition.

   The even more important addition is vigilant chemical substances, which is defined as “designated non-toxic chemical substances considered as possibly pollutive to the environment or harmful to human health based on the nature of the chemical substances or the universally concerns about in which consumer products contain”

3. Addition of the chapter of accident prevention and emergency response

   Measurements of accident prevention and emergency response include:

   (1) The handler shall submit Hazard Prevention and Emergency Response Plan to the local competent authority;
   (2) Establishing an accreditation mechanism for professional training and emergency response institute.

4. Establishment of National Chemical Substances Control Board

   The Premier shall serve as the head of the Board, to coordinate the chemical substances administration over all the central competent authorities.

5. Fund establishment

   The central competent authority may establish a fund, which shall be used for the management of chemicals and relevant affairs, out of the fees charged according to the handling circumstances of certain chemicals and the fines penalized in accordance with the Act.

The amendments to the Statute for Investment by Foreign Nationals, drafted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, is intended to remove more hurdles for foreigners seeking to invest in Taiwan, simplify the process for the application , so as to build a better investment environment.

According to the proposed amendment, a foreign investor should no longer be required to submit an investment application to competent authorities prior to making the investment. Instead, it may submit the application within 2 months after the investment. In other words, foreign nationals will be allowed to invest first and file later. However, the approval must be obtained in advance in specific cases, including the following situations:

1. The amount of investment exceeds proposed threshold set by competent authority. （The standard is still under discussion by the central bank and relevant government agencies）
2. Investment is restricted or prohibited by law or by an order given under the applicable law.
3. Other special circumstances announced by the competent authorities.

Taiwan receives about 3,500 applications per year from foreign investors and overseas Taiwanese, according to Chang Ming-pin, executive secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Investment Commission, adding that 85 percent of them will be exempt from submitting applications in advance.

Other provisions concerning applications to competent authorities should reflect the change from “prior approval” to “subsequent filing, except in special cases. At last, the Amendment should be made concerning penalties for violations of the statutes or failure to perform matters approved by competent authority. It will allow a fine of NT$240,000 to NT$4.8 million (US$7,764 to US$155,274) on foreign investors who violate equity investment rules, and may also include suspension of their equity investments for one year. Potential equity investors that are required to file an application in advance but fail to do so will risk a fine of NT$120,000 to NT$600,000, according to the draft bill.

While the amendment awaits the green light from the Legislature, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will work with related agencies to further streamline screening procedures and review negative investment lists for necessary changes.

On December 27, 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) showed a better way to build a whole new government: “The Plan for Smart Government”. Former Premier Lai Ching-te (Su Tseng-chang takes office as premier.) said that accelerating the digital transformation of government is an important policy for Taiwan. Executive Yuan approved “Strategic Plan for Smart Government Promotion” which is issued by NDC on January 10, 2019. It means that building a Smart Government will be a critical policy in 2019.

According to the press release of NDC on February 9, 2019, NDC will execute three significant plans this year, and Smart Government will be one of them. The presentation by NDC defined Smart Government as: “using information as the backbone, applying emerging technologies such as IoT and blockchain to match government services with people's needs, and combining AI and cloud computing to optimize decision-making quality and to construct the next stage of public-private co-governance model.”

The fundamental framework of Smart Government includes two outlines. The first one is “to fully issue New eID”. eID is an international trend and Taiwan will follow it. Ministry of Interior is planning to replace the traditional ID card with digital ID card which will combine ID card and citizen certificate. The main function of eID is as a key for people to access digital government services. The second one is “ to establish a secure and trusted data exchange system (T-Road)”. The government network will be applied to connecting databases of government, and emerging technologies such as blockchain will be used to protect data. Digital ID card will be the key to access the databases of government. After verifying users and being authorized by users, the government can read information of users and provide services.

Besides, there are three major goals of Smart Government. The first one is “open and transparent data, and maximized added value,” which means the government will be a platform for public and private sectors to circulate and exchange information. The government will provide better public services through data circulation, information flow, and data analysis. The second one is “chained governance network and optimizing the quality of decision making.” The strategies include “basing on data-oriented computation and analysis to optimize the quality of decision making” and “using National Geographic Information System (NGIS) as reference for decision making”. The last one is “integrating services functions, and creating innovative smart services”. It includes introducing innovative technologies to customized livelihood service, mobilizing and digitalizing end-to-end online services, and once-for-all data input.

NDC also notices topics about regulations, privacy protection, and cybersecurity, and issues three supporting measures. NDC also said 80% of applications for government services will be completed online. The vision of Smart Government is to deliver convenient, efficient, and 24/7 government services to the people. It means that people can use more digital government services by mobile phones in the future.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract

The vigorous development of digital economy has driven the diverse face of new ventures. However, the impact of new innovations on regulation has enabled national policies and regulations to support innovation and prevent and control risks, has become a common problem for national supervision agencies department, the regulatory sandbox which is often mentioned in the innovation and technological legal system, in recent years was established and promoted by the United Kingdom in 2015. In the highly regulated financial field, it advocates for allowing save and controllable scope to be tested first under the supervision system, and temporarily exempting relevant regulations and responsibility. In December 2017, Taiwan approved the "Financial Technology Development and Innovative Experimentation Act" which gave the financial technology research and development a safe environment. How the regulations provide digital economic related industries and innovative and entrepreneurial friendly environment, is the government's first step and important topic. In view of this, in order to provide a legal environment conducive to the development of new ventures, accelerating regulatory adjustment and regulatory flexibility is an important policy for the current international economic restructuring. This paper observes and focuses on the regulation, to find and suggest a different policy beyond the regulatory sandbox. With another regulation planning to provide a system to suit the innovative environment, to provide the advice on digital economy developing policy to decease government control effectively, and to suggest the way to exclude impacts of innovation to the government.

Keywords: Regulatory Sandbox, Regulatory Flexibility, Better Regulation, Innovative Experimentation

< Source: Pei-Yng Lin, Legal Study on the Innovative Experimentation and Regulatory Flexibility for Innovation Technology Research and Development Results, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 30 No.11 p.33~52 >

Abstract

The construction of the legal system around utilization of R&D results is closely related to the achievement of benefits and goals of Technology Development Programs. After the amendment of Science and Technology Basic Law, authorities made different regulations on utilization of TDPs Results, which may bring higher cost on legal compliance. Thus, this research generalized the issues from the differences of the regulations, and made legal suggestions by comparing with U.S., Japan and E.U. result utilizing regulations.

Keyword: Technology Development Program, Utilization Regulation, Technology Transfer, Legal Integration

< Source: Chih-Yi Liu & Yen-Ju Fan, The Integration of Regulations on Utilization of Technology Development Program Results – Focus on Technology Transfer, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 30 No.11 p.53~72>