Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) yesterday gave his approval to the appointment of Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) as the new chairman of Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), after Taipower chairman Edward Chen (陳貴明) tendered his resignation on Saturday.
Sean Chen’s statement came after the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a text message on Saturday night that it had approved Edward Chen’s resignation and recommended that Hwang fill the vacancy to facilitate the task of reforming the loss-making state-run company.
“I accept Edward Chen’s resignation and agree to the recommendation of Hwang as his successor,” Premier Chen told Central News Agency after attending a public function in Taipei.
The nation’s largest electricity supplier and monopoly grid operator has recently drawn sharp criticism for seeking steep rises in the electricity rates to ease its financial woes.
The company must press ahead with reform despite the leadership reshuffle, the premier said.
Taipower has accumulated NT$132.2 billion (US$4.52 billion) in net losses as of February and would incur additional losses of NT$10 billion a month if electricity prices remain unchanged, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said last month.
To avoid that, Taipower proposed raising electricity prices by an average of 16.9 percent for households, 30 percent for commercial establishments and 35 percent for industrial users, starting May 15.
The looming rate increases, on the heels of a 10 percent rice in petroleum-based products last month, deepened public unease over growing inflationary pressures and forced President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to slow the rate adjustments.
The rate increases will now be introduced in three phases — an increase of 40 percent of the originally planned increase on June 10 and another 40 percent increase on Dec. 10 — with the timing of the remaining 20 percent increase depending on progress in Taipower’s reform.
The ministry is due to wrap up a three-month review of the company’s pricing, procurement and personnel compensation policies at the end of next month.
With a doctoral degree in information engineering from National Chiao-Tung University, Hwang, 59, worked as a senior executive at the National Enterprise Commission and the Department of Industrial Technology, as well as the Bureau of Industrial Development under the economics ministry before assuming his current post in March 2009.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) voiced skepticism over Hwang’s capability to shake up Taipower, given his background of long service as a bureaucrat.
“Hwang, who has worked for the government for a long time, lacks the vision and resolution to overhaul Taipoiwer,” Ting said by telephone.
Ting said it is reasonable for Edward Chen to step down and take the political responsibility for the public uproar against Taipower.
KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) voiced similar views, saying Edward Chen, who has chaired Taipower since April 2006, proved unable to improve the company’s efficiency in any way.
“It is high time the company installs a new leader so it might have a better chance at reform,” Lin said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique