萬國法律事務所

Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan recently passed the Access to Government Information Law and accordingly, all government information, with the obvious exception of national secrets, professional secrets, private information and intellectual property rights that must be protected, is now required to be made accessible.

The new Law was drafted with reference to the principles of information sharing and government transparency as illustrated in the laws of countries such as the United States, Japan, Sweden and Canada, to name a few.

The stated purposes of the new Law are the protection of people’s right to know, to share government information and to enhance citizens’ understanding of public matters.

The Access to Government Information Law replaces the Administrative Information Law, and requires the Government to be proactive in the editing, indexing and filing of all treaties, correspondence with foreign nations, laws, administrative decisions, administrative reports, budgets, research papers, procurement contracts and meeting records.

Further, according to the new law, all relevant information is required to be categorized by subject, title, indexes, storage of original files, and periods and to be maintained on file within three months of the time it is obtained, and subsequently published in appropriate and relevant government publications or on suitable Government Web sites in order to enable easy public access to the same.

All Taiwan citizens, including those expatriated or studying overseas, and all companies and groups registered in Taiwan, as well as all foreign nationals whose native countries do not preclude Taiwan nationals from applying for access to view their government information, will be eligible apply for access to the information.