Weapons procurement plan stays unchanged, says MND

This article was from the Central News Agency and published by the Macroview Weekly on July 13, 2005.

An influential U.S. think tank recently suggested that Taiwan should increase its annual defense spending to 3 or 3.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, so that it can accommodate the procurement of arms in its annual budgets, instead of adding special budgets.

However, officials from the Ministry of Defense said that any increase in Taiwan's defense spending would inevitably squeeze spending in other areas. Therefore, it is not likely in the foreseeable future that Taiwan will increase its defense spending.

Taiwan's current defense spending is approximately 2.4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.