Bank of Taiwan chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) has been appointed to take over from Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全), who will leave the post on Monday when the Cabinet steps down, while Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) chairman Morgan Hwang (黃營杉), will replace Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) as Minister of Economic Affairs, CNA reported late last night.
"Lyu said he'll do his best when designated premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) met him in the afternoon," the Bank of Taiwan chairman's secretary said yesterday.
Lin had been invited to serve as minister without portfolio, but he told reporters last night that he decided to decline the offer, citing miscommunications.
Banker
Lyu, 50, has served as vice chairman of the Commission of National Corporations (
In June 2004, he was promoted to chair the nation's largest lender, the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行). Under Lyu's leadership, the bank announced that it would acquire smaller lender Central Trust of China (中央信託局) as a 100-percent owned business late last year, as part of the government's financial reforms aimed at consolidating the nation's crowded banking sector.
Lyu holds a master's degree in management from Northwestern University.
His ties with the Democratic Progressive Party originated from the dangwai (outside the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]) period, but these days he chooses to keep his distance from politics, sources said.
Money-spinner
Hwang is expected to bring his experience of turning around money-losing state-run enterprises to the Ministry of Economic Affairs when he takes the helm.
As a former dean of National Taipei University's business school and an executive in several private companies for more than 20 years, Hwang has successfully reformed state-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司) and earned NT$5.2 billion (US$162 million) in after-tax earnings for the company from 2004 to last year, as well as pushing the Taiwan Beer brand to new heights.
The prominent achievement brought greater responsibility for Hwang, who was appointed by the government to take over the chairmanship of Taipower in July last year.
Hwang became the first chairman of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor after the state-run monopoly was privatized in July 2002.
The 65-year-old Hwang has demonstrated a passion for improving the bureaucratic government sector.
With his proven business management skills and thorough understanding of the business environment, Hwang is expected to bring a new culture of efficiency to the ministry.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS