KMT confirms Chen wants Siew to head economics agency

KMT spokesman Wang Chih-kang (王志剛) confirmed that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had talked to KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) about inviting Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) to chair a multi-party economic development agency, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.

According to Wang, Chen raised the issue on Sunday while visiting Lien at the Taipei Veterans' General Hospital. Lien was hospitalized for an acute urinary tract infection. In response, Lien told Chen that because the issue involves both the DPP and the KMT, it would need further discussion within the party before any decision could be made.

Speaking on the behalf of Lien, Wang said yesterday that the KMT would make a decision on the issue after Chen's return from a 15-day trip to Taiwan's allies in Latin America.

This is not the first time that Siew has been favored by Chen as a symbol for political cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties. In November Chen asked Siew to represent him at last year's APEC summit in Brunei, but the KMT refused to allow Siew to attend.

In a letter Lien wrote to Chen, Lien said that the trust between the ruling and the opposition parties had been destroyed, and that Siew should not represent the president in Brunei after a political dispute over the timing of the policy announcement to halt the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) project.

Siew, Taiwan's former premier, has been the KMT government's representative to the APEC summit in the past.

Chen has also supported Siew on cross-strait trade issues. Delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of Siew's Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation in late March, Chen said that Taiwan and China should put aside their political differences for now and focus on economic cooperation and exchanges.

"We should put cross-strait trade issues under the global framework, and work to form a whole new economic model between the two sides," Chen said.

Local media also reported over the weekend that Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), president of the Taiwan Research Institute (台綜院), would likely head the proposed economic development agency.