TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Tuesday outlined three directives to expand participation across society in the nation’s whole-of-society resilience.

During the sixth Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee meeting, Lai called for more legal mechanisms to facilitate cross-ministerial and public-private cooperation. He instructed the Cabinet to begin institutionalizing policies that clarify the roles of ministries and local governments and authorize civil participation, per CNA.

All ministries should understand their responsibilities, while NGOs, communities, and households should also know what to do in a crisis, Lai said.

The president recognized the importance of building resilience education in schools, saying that all sectors of society and all generations must develop risk awareness and response capabilities. He asked the Cabinet to inventory relevant educational resources and strengthen cooperation with civic groups.

Lai also urged the promotion of civil-military integration. This year’s urban resilience exercises were conducted in 11 counties and cities, but they were only initial forays into civil-military cooperation, he said. Next year’s exercises must build on this foundation and further refine training, he said.

The president instructed the Cabinet to oversee ministries as they hold drills within their respective areas of responsibility, such as energy, transportation, communications, or healthcare resilience. These drills must be institutionalized, science-based, and non-scripted, Lai said. The results of these exercises will be analyzed to track progress and certify that government measures are sufficient to address potential risks, he said.

True resilience does not mean pushing people to their limits, but giving society the ability to rebound, Lai said. The better prepared the public is, the less room there will be for infiltration, intimidation, and manipulation, he added.